HE Knows

I always love going to church.
It is a delight to gather with my brothers and sisters in Christ to worship the LORD together, and to hear His Word preached for our edification and transformation. I just love being part of such a service.
But sometimes, God has a little something extra planned to make me cherish the experience even more.
Like HE did this past Sunday.

Our pastor was teaching about praying the scriptures and at the end of the service he gave us opportunity to put into practice the very thing he'd just been saying. We each had a list of topics about which we might want to pray, which were followed by a couple related scripture references. Since I had very recently decided to host a women's listening retreat and have much planning to do, the topic Guidance appealed to me and I "randomly" chose the second scripture reference listed. (If you know me, you know I don't believe anything is truly random.) I just love what happened next.
I opened my Bible, turned to John 10:27, and read,

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.

Did I mention that I'm hosing a listening retreat???
This verse is a perfect picture of what I pray will happen at the retreat.
*Women will come and listen to His voice.
*Women will be convinced that they are fully known by their loving Creator.
*Women will follow Him more closely as a result of the time they spend listening.

Friends, God gave me the agenda for the retreat in that one verse! And what blessed my heart even more than His attention to my prayer for guidance is the understanding that HE knows. HE knows what we need before we even know we have the need.
Before I sat in the pew last Sunday, before it entered my mind to host this retreat, before the leadership of my church decided to do this series on prayer, before anyone thought of creating a list of possible concerns and related Bible verses - God knew I was going to need to read John 10:27 as His guiding Word.
And HE made it happen.
Because HE knows.