As hurricane Dennis fast approached the Gulf Coast on Sunday, July 10, our relatives' home on Mobile Bay was in line for a direct hit. They hadn't even completed all the repairs from damages caused by last year's Ivan. If Dennis would only turn a little bit more to the east, the potential problems would be significantly less.
My sister-in-law phoned my mother-in-law moments before she left for Sunday School.
"Please pray for us," she asked, "and have your Sunday School class pray for us, too. Pray that this hurricane turns away from us."
They did. and it did. and this is no surprise to any of us.
We've always claimed that my mother-in-law has a direct connection. She is faithful in her prayers. We're certain that this is why our own lives have been so blessed. She prays while my better half is in the air, flying on business trips or in the midst of an important presentation. She prays for our son to be successful in his college courses. She prays for her friends who are suffering. My better half swears that she prays for all the rain we've been having in order to keep him from riding his Harley, of which she doesn't approve.
My friend, Lucille, has connections, too. She has her rosaries and her special prayers, and she, too, prays for us. Her faith is strong. It sees her through every day. We are blessed because of Lucille's prayers as well. Although I doubt Lucille has been praying for rain.
Maybe this is why I can be so laid back. I have these powerful prayers being lifted up on our behalf, and I know that we are being watched over by some wonderful angels. These prayers, combined with my own simple ones, remove my own burdens to the shoulders of One who is much better equipped to deal with them.
I talk to God as though He is sitting right beside me at the kitchen table. We have wonderful conversations. Once I've poured out my thoughts and concerns, I shut out the rest of the world and just try to listen. Sometimes I hear him; sometimes I don't. But I am, nevertheless, more peaceful. I believe with all my heart that God will tell me sooner or later what I need to know. Even if it isn't the answer I hope to hear, He will tell it like it is. And then, sometimes, there are simply things I don't need to know. I accept that, too.
Our country needs our prayers. This world needs our prayers. Lucille and my mother-in-law can't handle it for all of us. We all need to pray from our hearts.
Satan is alive and very well in this world today, and he is actively trying to shatter our faith with the evil things he is encouraging people to do. Only through faith and prayer will we overcome his influence. He is more powerful than our guns, bombs, government, plans, or defenses. He works through greed, power, money, lust, and selfishness. Look around you - his influence is everywhere. But he can't be successful against a prayerful, faithful society.
Personally, we have some friends who need your prayers today. There are some whose marriage has fallen apart, and who are now dealing with starting over at mid-life. There are those whose marriage is crumbling and who have lost their love for one another. There are those who may face days of suffering ahead as they come to terms with very difficult decisions to be made. Please pray for these friends of mine. With your help, and with Lucille's and my mother-in-law's, I pray that these friends will find peace and guidance.
Prayer is powerful. If it can change the course of an impending Catagory 3 hurricane, don't you agree that it can calm the turbulence of our own lives?
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3 comments:
Umm, what about the prayers of those people who WERE hit by Hurricane Dennis?? According to Wikipedia, Dennis caused at least 71 deaths in the United States and Caribbean, and caused $5-9 billion in damage, about half of it in the Caribbean. Do you think those people were hit because they were NOT praying, or perhaps because they were not as good Christians as you in-laws?
What about the current crisis? Do you think there was no one praying for Katrina to veer away from the Gulf Coast? No, I think your analysis of the power of prayer is severely flawed.
I must say that nowhere in scripture do I see that anyone has a better "connection" to God than anyone else with the exception of Jesus Himself. It sounds as if a debate is brewing about who gets the most "reaction" out of God. I assure you that God is Proactive and not reactive. Job 5:6-18 says it like this, "For hardship does not spring from the soil,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground. Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
"But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
He bestows rain on the earth; he sends water upon the countryside.
The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away. Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope and injustice shuts its mouth. "Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal." So you see, He is active in this world, not waiting for us to pray.
1 John 5:14 says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." Notice that the qualifier is "according to His will" not who we are or how well or frequently we pray.
I am by no means an expert on prayer, but Christ died for all His people and the fruit of the Holy Spirit are given to all His people, and ALL His people may approach Him with full confidence that He hears us. And When we pray, we get to participate in all the blessings when we see God work through those prayers.
I like what you say about prayer in how it goes for you. That is awesome! I wish I had more of that, really. To have a sister like yours would be such a blessing too! I don't hahve anyone like that in my non nuclear family who would pray like that, but thank God for the body of Christ!
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