Glimpses of Faithfulness

I received this in a message from my son, Mark who is incarcerated in Southern Illinois.  I share this because I am overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude for how God is working in Mark's life in the midst of difficult circumstances.  These seemingly simple or little things are testifying to an incredibly big victory that is being won in his life.  I hope this is a blessing and encouragement to you.  It certainly was to me.

Quick little testimony/challenge. Let me just say that the little prayers make all the difference. This probably sounds super lame but in contrast to my big prayers which can be sometimes made for the wrong reasons and go unanswered for the most part, this little prayer was immediately answered with a resounding yes. Here's what happened. I decided to go to sleep earlier than usual last night even though I didn't feel tired. As I lay on my prison mattress wide awake I found myself praying this simple prayer: "God, you know I'm not really tired right now but I want to wake up for breakfast tomorrow and someone else is counting on me to get them up even though I'm not a morning person, far from it! Still, I ask for you to allow me to fall asleep right now, that my sleep will be restful and refreshing, and you'll wake me up just when I need to be up to make it to breakfast." Guess what? That's exactly what He did for me. 5:04 am rolled around and I was immediately alert and focused. 5 minutes earlier and I wouldn't have known to check the time, 5 minutes later and I would've missed breakfast completely. This simple little experience reminded me that too often I neglect praying the little prayers and focus all my energy and attention on big ones. Those big ones almost always take relatively much longer to be answered and I miss out on the joy of watching my smaller steps of faith be rewarded. Let me remind you not to focus so much on the major prayers that smaller requests remain unvoiced. Give God as many chances as possible to glorify himself and display his faithfulness in your own personal walk with him. Chances are He won't cease to amaze you and you'll naturally want to talk with him and trust him more.

God,  please give me the same sense of awe and increase of faith that my son has experienced in the little demonstrations of your incredible faithfulness.  Let this be the stuff of the Me of My Dreams....