Last month I was speaking at a weekend conference for women in the Midlands. I’d prepared something for three sessions but was not confident about the subject matter for one of them. At the Thursday group the week before, the three women in my discussion group asked what they could pray for me. ‘Oh, just pray for this conference!’ I said.

As they prayed and listened to God as well, one of them said hesitantly ‘Ecclesiasticus……..or something, chapter 4 verse 9.’ I turned to her in surprise because that was the exact passage in Ecclesiastes I was planning to speak on in the session I was not sure about! She burst into tears as well and said ‘God has never spoken to me like that before!’ Anyway, you’ve guessed by now that I was able to speak with confidence and that was the key lesson that God had for us this weekend!

On the way, I was driving up the M1, which is a tedious and monotonous road at the best of times and not improved by Friday traffic. So I was praying and talking to the Lord about the conference I was going to. ‘Lord if only you’d talk to me about the individuals who are going to be there – you know them and I don’t yet.’ As I was driving I became aware that, even though there were loads of cars on the road in all three lanes, I always seemed to be behind one small blue car. Then I noticed its number plate with the letters FLO and the mad thought occurred to me that God might be talking to me about a Florence I would meet. What would I pray for her? Then I noticed that the rest of the number plate was the initials of a friend who had prayed for me at a crisis time in my life and the number plate ended with a ‘U’ – so was I to pray the same thing for Florence? (by now you’re thinking that motorway madness is not such an impossibility after all!) Anyway until I eventually turned off the motorway, however much I overtook other cars or they overtook me, FLO was with me all the way up!!

When I got to the conference centre, I walked up to greet a friend and discovered her talking to a woman labelled ‘Florence….’

‘I think God has been talking to me about you, can I pray for you?’ I said.

I don’t know who was more startled – her or me!

My friend has since told me that Florence had been really blessed at the weekend! Well, God speaks in mysterious ways, but I suppose He is always out to bless us, however He can reach us. All I know is that it makes all the difference to life to hear God speak.