Me of Little Faith

Saturday night Chris received an email that would change me for the ensuing days. For simplicity and out of respect, and simply to avoid dealing with the details of the email, I will only say that a coworker of Chris’s sent a mass email to his company asking for prayers for his cousin’s daughter who had just been through a horrific event and was in the hospital fighting for her life. When Chris showed me the email, I was seconds from getting off the couch and heading to bed. But when I heard what this family was going through as I was about to go get in my comfortable bed, I just couldn’t. Some how, some way, I was going to get enough prayer so that this little girl could live, so that the parents of this precious child would be able to feel their daughter’s smiling cheeks pressed against their own faces. I wanted them to be able to see their baby’s bright smile, hear her sweet voice and smell her soft hair. The reason I wanted these things so badly was because I have a child who is very close in age to this little girl and I don’t know what I would do if I had to give those things up. I just don’t know if I could. And here were these parents, stuck in the middle of a nightmare. But the nightmare wasn’t over. The child was still alive, on life support. The next morning the doctors were going to perform one more deciding test. The results of this test would conclude once and for all if there was any activity left in her brain. To me, that meant hope!

I sent an email to my church asking for prayers. I posted a facebook post asking for prayers. I got down on my knees and cried and I told God that He was going to give this baby a full recovery. I knew He had heard me and that He was going to do it. At church Sunday morning I went to the alter and cried and prayed for her and for her family. I prayed for her to not know what had happened to her. I prayed for her parents to have the strength to deal with it without tearing at their clothes in anguish. I prayed again to God to heal her completely. It’s selfish to want her to stay here with her family if she can’t really live.

A few hours after church I found out that the test didn’t work. This sweet, precious baby can’t be in the world anymore. She was declared legally dead early that afternoon. However, the family chose to keep her body alive long enough to find recipients for their daughter to donate her organs to. Her life was taken and she continued to give life to others. Tonight I watched on Facebook as they said goodbye to their baby. I watched the mother lay in bed with her daughter and touch her sweet face. I watch her standing over her with a wet face, not wanting to look away, only wanting to prolong that moment of togetherness. I’m so heartbroken for her. I couldn’t do it.

Maybe I’m not mature enough in my faith but I don’t understand prayer right now. I feel like our prayers had no power. I know that there were armies of prayer warriors going strong for this child. I know that I commanded God to save her. Didn’t Jesus tell us that if we have even the tiniest bit of faith, we can command mountains to jump in the the rivers? Why was my faith not strong enough to help her when I thought it was? I’m beside myself with grief for a child that I never met. Her name is Grace and I’m so sorry for my lack of faith.

Persistence in Prayer May 7, 2013

From Streams in the Dessert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings by L. B. Cowman

May 7

Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)

The failure to preserve is the most common problem in prayer and intercession. We begin to pray for something, raising our petitions for a day, a week, or even a month, but then if we have not received a definite answer, we quickly give up and stop praying for it altogether.

This is a mistake with deadly consequences and is simply a trap where we begin many things but never see them completed. It leads to ruin in every area of life. People who get into the habit of starting without ever finishing form the habit of failure. And those who begin praying about something without ever praying it through to a successful conclusion form the same habit in prayer. Giving up is admitting failure and defeat. Defeat then leads to discouragement and doubt in the power of prayer, and that is fatal to the success of a person’s prayer life.

People often ask, “How long should I pray? Shouldn’t I come to the place where I stop praying and leave the matter in God’s hands?” The only answer is this: Pray until what you pray for has been accomplished or until you have complete assurance in your heart that it will be. Only when one of these two conditions has been met is it safe to stop persisting in prayer, for prayer not only is calling upon God but is also a battle with Satan. And because God uses our intercession as a mighty weapon of victory in the conlict, He alone must decide when it is safe to cease from petitioning. Therefore we dare not stop praying until either the answer itself has come or we receive assurance it will come.

In the first instance, we stop because we actually see the answer. In the second, we stop because we believe, and faith in our hearts is as trustworthy as the sight of our eyes, for it is “faith from God” (Eph. 6:23) and the “faith of God” (Rom. 3:3 KJV) that we have within us.

As we live a life of prayer, we will more and more come to experience and recognize this God-given assurance. We will know when to quietly rest in it or when to continue praying until we receive His answer. from The Practice of Prayer

Wait at God’s promise until He meets you there, for He always returns by the path of His promises. selected

I did not really understand growing up how important prayer is in life. Until I met my husband, I rarely prayed. When I did pray it was one of those emergency prayers when something wasn’t going my way.

Recently it was revealed to me that in order to have a relationwhip with God, prayer is a must. A life without prayer is not an option. We are especially called to pray for others. I think that it’s important to do whatever we can to ensure that prayer becomes a habit for us in our lives. It’s important for us to pray casually throughout the day and for us to set aside time for intense, intimate prayer time with God. And when prayer becomes a natural part of our day, we will wonder what we ever did without prayer.

I challenge anyone who reads this to pick something specific, no matter how big, to pray about. Pray for it every day until you have an answer.

-TMS

Jesus’ Prayer for Glory April 10, 2013

From Once A Day Devotional for Women

April 10

JESUS’ PRAYER FOR GLORY

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
    “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” John 17:1-5

At the last supper, the night before his betrayal, Jesus prayed this prayer. Precisely at the time when Jesus was preparing himself and his disciples for the suffering he would endure in the days ahead, Jesus prayed that God would be glorified in his life. We often think the road to glory is lined with success. Yet, Jesus’ road to glory was lined with suffering and defeat: a horrible death on the cross. How could this “defeat” bring God glory? Jesus explained in his prayer that his own obedience to God’s plan was bringing glory to God. Rarely do we view our suffering and defeats as giving glory to God. But we also rarely have God’s view of our circumstances. God has a plan in which he is working all things out for the good of his people and for the glory of his name. While we may look forward to the glory we will share with God in heaven, perhaps the greater wonder of the Christian life is that God’s glory is reflected in our acts of obedience, love, and faithfulness in this life.
Follow Christ’s example today, by praying that God might be glorified in your life.

At times I am conflicted between obedience to God and understanding His will for my life. God’s plan just doesn’t always make sense to me. I’ve seen situations where God’s glory looked like defeat at first and where defeat was disguised as glory. It’s CONFUSING at times! The most important thing I can do is live my life, as best I can, based on God’s Word. I’ve seen people pick apart the Word of God until it doesn’t resemble anything I’ve read in the Bible. To me, it’s so important to stay true to God and forget what my selfish heart wants. God’s will is flawless and it will prevail whether I choose to be a part of it or not.

The Priority if Being in His Presence April 9, 2013

From Once-A-Day Walk with Jesus  devotional: 365 days in the New Testament edited by Mickey Hodges, John Hoover and Paula Kirk

Christ in Gethsemane (Christus in Gethsemane), oil painting by Heinrich Ferdinand Hofmann (Heinrich Hofmann). The original is at the Riverside Church (Riverside Church, New York City). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

April 9

THE PRIORITY OF BEING IN HIS PRESENCE

Jesus, knowing that they inteded to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6:15

John 6 describes on of Jesus’ busiest days – a day filled with sermons and miracles.
A crowd of more than 5,000 listened to him preach, saw him multiply the fish and loaves, then clamored to make him king.
And yet in the midst of it all, Jesus withdrew for some quiet moment with the Father.
Andrew Murray knew firsthand the importance of private audiences with the King of kings.

WALK WITH ANDREW MURRAY
“Man needs to be alone with God, to sense again the presence and power of his holiness, of his life, and of his love.
“Christ on earth needed it. He could not live the life of a Son here in the flesh without at times separating himself entirely from his surroundings and being alone with God. And how much more must this be indispensable to us!
“When our Lord Jesus gave the blessed command to enter our inner chamber, to shut the door and pray to our Father in secret, he gave us the promise that the Father would hear such prayers and mightily answer them.
“Alone with God. That is the secret of true prayer, of true power, of real living in face-to-face fellowship with God”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Before Jesus chose his 12 disciples, he spent a night – alone – in prayer.
Before Jesus went to the cross, he agonized in Gethsemane – alone – in prayer.
Solitary prayer. There’s no better way to wrestle with a decision.
Deal with a temptation.
Refocus on priorities.
Cultivate your love for God.
Worship your Lord and Savior.
Try it, and you’ll soon discover how habit-forming being alone with God can be. And how it will empower you to reach out to others.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 is quite possibly the easiest Bible Verse to remember. Pray continually. To me, it sounds like God wants us to always be praying. And I think He does. Until recently, I never really understood how important prayer is. I understood that it’s powerful. But I didn’t really understand that for a healthy relationship with God, the lines of prayer communication must be constantly open. We are accessible to Him and Him to us through prayer. But even further, we must make private time for Him as well. No intimate relationship can be sustained without open communication and private time together. A relationship with God is no exception.

-TMS