Crazy answer to prayer

I'm not always a morning person. I can be, but like many other college students I specifically set my school schedule so I can sleep in  - and I get to sleep in two times during the school week. No, no extra hours of work in the morning, unless I absolutely have to(meaning I either procrastinated or was overwhelmed by work). I'm not one of those early morning productive children. More likely I'd work through the night into the morning. In any case, I like my sleep. A lot. And people like me better when I do sleep haha.

Some might say I like to sleep as much as a cat

Well, two Tuesdays ago(the 13th) was one of the days that I worked on homework late. I got into bed around 2:30. As I was lying there, settling my mind, I remembered something. Oh no! I told one of my friends that I'd go to 7 AM prayer that morning. 7 AM seemed way too close. But I hadn't made it in a good while. And I told her I'd go. I was conflicted. But I knew myself. Getting up early without another person to motivate me would be hard. So I set my alarm, not believing I'd get up with it. And right before I went to sleep, I prayed to God, "God, if you want me to go to prayer this morning, you're going to have to get me up."

Cue 5:45 AM. I wake up to the sounds of sirens and lights under my door. Dazed, I thought I was still dreaming for a second. I opened my door, saw the other inhabitants moving around. But I needed to get on some warmer clothes and shoes. Then they were gone and as I was still disoriented, I looked around for them for a while. I ran down all the flights of stairs(as I'm on the top floor - go me!), chatted with some friends, then got texted directions to my roomies standing near a lamppost in the courtyard. It was then that I verbalized what I thought might be true -that God had used the fire alarm to wake me up and I got some (albeit cranky ;-) ) support for my theory. I mean, who is doing anything at 5:45 AM to set off a fire alarm?  And we had't had an early fire alarm like this this semester. But would God wake up an entire building just to get me up?

I think the answer is yes. I believe it was Jesus waking me up. To me there are no coincidences, especially not after prayer. Thus going back to sleep after the fire alarm would be ignoring an answer to prayer. So when we rode back up the elevators after the fire alarm, I got my Bible and other sundries, avoiding my bed like the plague, and rode back down and out before I could change my mind. Very awake at this point, I walked over to where we have prayer on campus and had my devotions. I remember being excited and alive! It was a great time with Jesus.

Then 7 AM rolled around and my friends walked over to the little alcove we've adopted for our weekly prayer. Prayer was so good! We shared our hurts and praises and felt like God was really in our midst. My friend who leads the prayers always shares a couple of scriptures. I need to ask her again what they were, but I think one of them was interestingly related to my case:

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:1-2 (bold mine)

I'll have to get back to you on whether or not my friend said this one on this particular Tuesday or not. Whether or not she did, it perfectly matched my situation. I mean, God had it under control whether or not I would go and took care of me later - I mean, I got more than enough sleep because I just went back to bed after.

God is good. Maybe next time it won't take a fire alarm to get me out of bed(I know the rest of the population would enjoy that hahaha). Seriously, though, I don't think that he's going to let the same thing happen again. He taught me that he does answer prayer and that fellowship with him and other believers is precious.