I couldn't even tell you all of the ways that God has blessed me in the past week, there are so many ways that I'm just overwhelmed.

I was talking to my friend Paul on Wednesday, and we got into this deep conversation about life and stuff. What he said just touched my life, and I started to realize how much of life I am missing out on because I insist on doing things my way. Immediately after leaving his house I started praying to God to give me some encouragement in life (in a few different areas specifically). I was down and I didn't even know it.

The next day (Thursday) I decided to prioritize going out to fellowship with Christians rather than doing my quantum homework (which I had put so many hours into) that was due the next day. While I was out I noticed that I noticed this one girl who I barely knew existed and I started asking my friend Caleb about her. Friday rolls around, and my quantum professor gives the class an extension until Monday (encouragement in school) -- Dr. Pate never gives extensions. That night one of my friends had a free dinner thing at her church and invited me to go (I had been looking into going to church there for a while), so I went and had the time of my life. I met so many new people that all seemed to love God, including the girl that previously I noticed that I noticed (encouragement in relationships). No girl ever has caught my attention so quickly (it wasn't in a shallow sense that I noticed her either, although...).

Fast forward to Monday (although Sunday was a blessing too) and I wake up at 6am and have this wonderful prayer time. My friend calls me up during the day and he's telling me about how much his girlfriend loves one of my songs and how she's showing it to all her friends (encouragement in music). Now my week has kind of blurred together a bit, but I've been waking up at 6am every day and having these awesome times with God (it's worth it to take extra time for God, trust me!). One day this week I bumped into my NASA adviser talking to the principal scientist at our PDS node and they were both telling me about this meeting that they went to in D.C. last week. They got some important guy interested in me working with some programmers and scientists to come up with a new system of archiving data from the Cassini mission, specifically the UVIS instrument. I have an internship with NASA that will end in June, so now it's clear that they want to keep me after this period and they were talking about sending me out to California to work with these people (encouragement in job).

Tuesday I was hanging out with my friend Greg (ditching class...) and we ran into a guy from one of the campus ministries, and they knew each other. Greg is not a Christian, but he seems like he really wants to know the truth. Then God really laid it on my heart to start praying for Greg. On Wednesday I opened up iCal on my laptop and saw that when I was hanging out with Greg I should have been taking a test. So I logged onto the course website so that I could send my professor an e-mail begging him to let me take the test that I missed, and bam... out of nowhere I see that the test was scheduled for Thursday not Tuesday. But at the beginning of the class when I scheduled it into my iCal I had a pdf of the syllabus open and was copying all the days down from one window to another. Whether I copied down wrong in the first place or it was rescheduled without me noticing I believe that it was God's hand at work (encouragement in ministry).

Oh yeah, and on Friday I was paid twice as much as usual with no explanation, and after a couple of e-mails with payroll it doesn't seem like it was an error. (Maybe they caught up from when they were lagging behind last semester?)

~~~

So praise God! obviously. I love it when I know that God does something in my life, so that I can be honest when I give him the glory.

Through talking to friends and going to church I learned that what God does in our lives is exactly that: What God does. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. God does it, and it is a gift. You don't need to feel like you need to do anything to earn God's blessings, he just gives them. Then what do you say when you receive gifts?

~~~

What I would like to start praying about (please join me):
* For God to encourage us as believers in the areas that we need encouragement in (this is so huge), specifically for all the singles.
* For God to give his good and perfect gifts.
* To resist the temptation to try and call the shots with what God is doing in your life.

May God bless you all like he has been blessing me!
...And please don't hesitate to ask for prayer on this thread because I will pray for you.

-Stephen

Though about this verse when I read your post!

Philippians 4:6-7 (New King James Version)
New King James Version (NKJV)

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

due to my short attention span, I skimmed over your post and just want to say that GOD IS AWESOME! Glad things are good, dude.