Night thoughts

OK so here I am sitting in my new apartment. I can't believe I am finally here. It is huge! And for those of you who know me, huge is not some thing I am used to. It is a far cry from the beach shack I lived in back in Carlsbad....oh the days of no heaters and rooms on top of one another! Well those days are over and here I am a girl in her humongous room on her sup comfy bed determining the color she wants to paint the walls. love it and can't wait for you to come see it yourself. No worries I will be posting photos just as soon as the decorating as been completed!
Anyhow...
You know how when you move, or have some big change in your life, it can often lead to you reminiscing about days gone by, looking at old photos and maybe even talking to old friends.
Well that has definitely been me over the last few nights. While I have been up to my ears in paper work for my job, that I am not so excited over, going to this event and that event, learning about a new city and meeting all sorts of interesting characters. I have had the chance to reconnect with some good memories and delightful people. You never know how things are going to work out.
I have woken up several times in the last week, randomly having someone on my heart to pray for, write, call or I guess just keep in the back of my mind for some thing later on. I don't know how to explain it but I have had more interesting encounters with people than I have had in long long time.
The other night I went to this home group through the church that Rene and I have been attending in the morning. We all talked and then went over some Scripture but later we broke into two smaller groups and offered up listening ears and prayer in case anyone was in need. This was something I was really excited about because prayer has always been one of my favorite things to do for others. For the last few months I had felt dry in my desire to do this but for some reason over the last few weeks the Lord has quenched that thirst and this was going to be my first time to intercede on the behalf of people and I was really excited to do so.
So there I was in a group of five and only two of the four people in front of me had requests but I was totally taken by the Holy Spirit when I had the opportunity to pray for the family of one of the guys in our group. Now I won't go into detail of what the prayer was about but the Lord came first with a word while I was listening to him tell us his request and then the group asked me to lead in the prayer and I jumped at the opportunity. The Lord had words that night and I was thankful that I was being used to share them. I felt at home for the first time in a long time. I have often wondered if the Lord has given me a gift of intercession, but there are so many times where that has brought such fear in my heart that I have turned away from it. But that night the desire returned and I was happy to be there.
I find such peace when I am in the midst of what I know He is calling me to do. This is a peace I have not felt in such a long time and I am so thankful that the Lord reminded me of.
Just last night I was reminded of someone else I needed to pray for and it sat on my heart all night and into today. Its hard to pray for this person because I often get caught up on the assumption that I must know the need in order to pray, or know the person, or hear a desire. I am not sure I know any of those things about this person but I am praying anyway.

The word that comes to mind over and over again throughout these last few weeks is redemption. I think to each person I have talked to about this it has held a different meaning, but right now it means a very specific thing to one person and I am interceding for them now. I pray this word and its meaning brings the peace you need.