{"id":9792,"date":"2017-10-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=9792"},"modified":"2017-10-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T00:00:00","slug":"old-stories-with-a-new-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/faith\/essentials-faith\/growing-in-your-faith\/old-stories-with-a-new-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Stories With a New Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Merry and I are attending a Sunday-night class at our church on the Christian life.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been followers of Christ for many years, but sometimes it\u2019s nice to take a sort of \u201crefresher course\u201d about familiar truths.<\/p>\n

So the other night we were asked to meet with another couple and share a story about a time when God had worked in our lives through the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

My story<\/h2>\n

I told about a morning three weeks before our wedding.\u00a0 I awoke at around 5 a.m. and couldn\u2019t sleep.\u00a0 I felt restless and uneasy as I thought about getting married; I was anxious about the new responsibilities I was taking on as a husband.<\/p>\n

So I got up and went for a long walk as the city slowly awoke.\u00a0 It was one of those times when I was unusually reflective\u2014I thought of how God had worked in my life over the previous five years.\u00a0 I thought of how He had provided for me, and I thought of familiar Scriptures that reminded me of His love for me and His control over my life.<\/p>\n

And then came the moment that I most remember more than 30 years later.\u00a0 I sensed very clearly God telling me through His Spirit, \u201cIf you have any doubts that I am going to guide you over your life, just think of this:\u00a0 Out of all the people in this city, you are the one who I got out of bed early in the morning just so you could walk and spend time with Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That moment remains a touchstone for me\u2014a time when God let me know that He would never leave me or forsake me.<\/p>\n

Merry\u2019s story<\/h2>\n

Just after she graduated from high school, Merry joined 80,000 other students for a Campus Crusade for Christ conference in Dallas called EXPLO 72.\u00a0 It was a life-changing week for Merry in many ways, but one of the most memorable experiences occurred about midway through the event.<\/p>\n

Merry became sick and dehydrated, and she was taken to a Red Cross tent outside the Cotton Bowl.\u00a0 The people caring for her felt she was worn down from the hectic schedule and that she needed to return to her hotel, but it wouldn\u2019t work to wait hours for her group to leave on the bus.\u00a0 So they prayed that someone would come along to give her a ride.<\/p>\n

Not more than two minutes later a young man walked into the tent and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know why, but I just received a very strong impression that I should come in here and ask if anyone needs a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the young man did more than offer Merry a ride.\u00a0 He called his parents, and they invited her to stay with them in nearby Fort Worth while she recuperated.\u00a0 So that\u2019s where she stayed for the remainder of the conference.\u00a0 For Merry it was the first time she had ever observed a family that operated with Christ at the center of their home, and it made a strong impression on her.\u00a0 So strong that she determined that she would pray for a husband who was in love with God, and in the meantime she wouldn\u2019t date anyone unless he was a committed Christian.\u00a0 As she likes to say, \u201cI gave God my date life, and He took it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The connection<\/h2>\n

After we finished these stories, the other couple said, \u201cDo you see how those two stories are connected?\u201d\u00a0 In more than 30 years, we had never thought of it before; this was the first time we told those two stories together.<\/p>\n

We always thought these were two separate accounts of God working in our lives.\u00a0 But now I see a link:\u00a0 In 1972, Merry saw her heavenly Father provide for her needs in a special way, and she committed to trust God for a husband who walked with Him.\u00a0 At the time, this man had not yet trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior, but seven years later he was willing to get up at 5 a.m. to walk with God and listen to His voice.\u00a0 \u00a0I call that an answered prayer.<\/p>\n

Makes me think I need to get up early and take those walks more often.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 2012 by FamilyLife. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years later, my wife and I realized a new way God had answered our individual prayers before we were married.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":13887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Years later, my wife and I realized a new way God had answered our individual prayers before we were married.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2822],"tags":[],"equip-category":[],"cwp_profile":[3116],"class_list":["post-9792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growing-in-your-faith","cwp_profile-familylife"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2017\/10\/old-stories-with-a-new-connection_1024x326.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2017\/10\/old-stories-with-a-new-connection_1024x326.jpg",1024,321,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Katherine","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/kclemensfamilylife-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Years later, my wife and I realized a new way God had answered our individual prayers before we were married.","meta_box":{"_cloudsearch_visibility":"","profile_obj_manual_select":false,"profile_obj":false,"separator":false,"enable_link":false,"login_restricted":"","content_type":"","disclaimer_banner":"","currency":false,"pricing_subtext":false,"element_type":false,"date_field":false,"date_format":false,"theme_header_position":"","post_header_is_sticky":"","is_header_overlay":"","series":false,"ignore_sticky":false,"conditional_blocks_category":false,"cta_selection":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9792"},{"taxonomy":"equip-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/equip-category?post=9792"},{"taxonomy":"cwp_profile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cwp_profile?post=9792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}