This post was brought to you by God. Trust Him as you pray to heal family squabbles. This post of joy is about the wondrous God we serve. He uses different things to get our attention or to answer questions we are posing. “It sounds a little far-fetched, but I promise you every word is true.” Riffs in families are hard. It hurts everyone involved. However, it is a fact of life. Not long ago, there started to be turmoil in my family shortly after my brother passed away last year. It had somewhat been glossed over, instead of getting to the heart of the problem. Sadly, we ignored the deep chasm and just went on. I don’t know about anyone else’s family, but that had always been the way disagreements were dealt with in our family. Generational curses remain in tact when we choose to just sweep bitterness under the rug. BUT GOD, He delivers us from all evil! Glory to God, for His care!

There was a ruffling of the feathers last time I was with my family. On our way home from an event, I received a text from a family member. To say the least, it was not very comforting. So, I just started to PRAY before responding.  Had I not been fully and wholly submitted to my Counselor, the Holy Spirit, I would have snapped back a smart alecky retort.  I know my old nature wants to snarl at times. My Father is patient as I learn slowly.  Bitterness and anger easily fuels my frustration, BUT GOD! Wisdom won me over, and obediently, I chose to pray. This is where it may seem hard to believe.  My husband and I were driving home, and I was sitting on the passenger side of the car. My phone was on my lap, locked to where you had to enter the code to open it. I wasn’t fiddling with my cell phone. It was sitting in my lap.

In the middle of my prayer, out of the clear blue, my phone started playing one of the songs that we had played at my brother’s memorial service. In fact, it startled me out of my prayer. My husband looked over at me and was like, “What are you doing?” I was totally astonished in awe.

You have to understand, my locked phone was in my lap, not being held. The song was playing from my Pandora app on my phone. To get to the song to play, you would have had to unlock my phone with the code, sign in to my Pandora account, insert my username and password, and then search Pandora for that song and hit play. I did none of that. God did it. He was showing me that the whole root of the problem with the family revolves around forgiveness. Before my brother died, there was unforgiveness in the family. God was also reminding me that without forgiveness and repentance all the way around, the problem would remain unsolved. Oh, Father, forgive me for holding onto any bitter unforgiveness.

This post is to show the glory and wonder of how great our Lord is. Always be conscious of the things happening around you. What is the Spirit saying? You never know when the Lord is going to speak to you and how He will remind you of things left undone.  This wasn’t a great and grand miracle, but it was an outpouring of love from the Father. His message was clear. He  showed me what must happen to fix the riff in our family.  Our Father always answers prayer, just sometimes not in the way you expect. I am so very thankful He speaks to my heart and gives me boldness to ask for His forgiveness.

This true story was written by Audree Tipton, one of the administrators of the Todd Coconato Remnant Core Group on Facebook. Posted on December 22, 2024. A bold testimony on the power of prayer and our Father’s way of astonishing us.

Unwrap the gift of love slowly. Reopen all those gifts you have already received; Love from an old wretch turned friend; kindness from those who hurt you; the mercy extended when you goofed up;  the sweet patience of the angels watching; those who served up laughter; the gracious hospitality of others;  the smiling faces that speak encouragement; the Father’s forgiveness and all His greater grace. Enjoy His mercy in the merry and praise God. ❤️