pray without ceasing
Housegroup the other night covered a wide range of topics and went to quite some depths. One of the things we discussed was praying for healing and the whole deal about how we feel when we pray and ' nothing happens'.
There were a few good points made
1) There is never a time when ' nothing' happens. Immediate healing might not happen. But encouragemment, support, friendship, care, love, committment, standing alongside.... all of that happens every time we pray for someone.
2) It's a battle. Someone shared a picture of a person who was enfolded in the arms of a many-tentacled beast. Each prayer that is prayed deals with one tentacle. Eventually , after five or ten or a hundred or a thousand prayers, the last tentacle will be removed and the person will be free. I liked this analogy and it reminded me of the time I had a bad back. I was prayed for over and over again for a few months with seemingly no effect. Then one sunday a teenage girl in church caught me as I was hobbling out of church early cos I couldnt bear the pain any more. She asked if she could pray, did so very simply, and by the next day I was right as rain!! As I thanked God for my healing ( and Ive never had any problems with my back since) I saw a picture of a pair of old fashioned scales. My sore back was on one side and the other side was full of pebbles, each of which represented a prayer, That last prayer on that sunday morning tipped the balance in favour of health and healing. Im convinced of it.
3) Sometimes God is more concerned with something else about the person than immediate healing. Often in the Bible we see Jesus forgiving peoples sins, apparently only healing them of their physical infirmities as an ' afterthought' It reminds me of the time I went up for prayer about my memory. I was getting concerned as I was having major lapses and did actually think I might be starting with early onset alzheimers. The nice ladies on the prayer team asked me what I wanted prayer for. I told them. They prayed about something completely different! I was surprised and somewhat cross. But lo and behold a few weeks later someone else came up to me and started talking about that very thing the prayer ladies had said. And I started to realised that God was onto something. The issue wasnt my memory it was something else and as I started to think about that and respond guess what ? The memory difficulties began to recede. Im still not the sharpest tool in the box but Im no longer seriously thinking I might be losing my mind.
It can be hard work and rather discouraging to keep on praying and keep on asking. Especially when your prayers seem to get no further than the ceiling. We've been praying for our house to sell for three years. I've been praying for family members to meet Jesus for thirty years. We can get weary and its tempting to give up. Which is why its always really good to get together with other people to pray about these longstanding issues. We can bear one another's burdens in praying. I know that my prayer triplet have often picked up the baton for me when I have run out of steam in prayer. And I have found Im able to pray for them and their burdens easily because they are my friends and I love them. We want the best for each other and have each others hearts and backs.
I hope you have people like that in your life. And that you dont give up praying, piling on the stones, releasing the tentacles, asking , seeking , knocking. I actually believe we are about to enter a time of answered prayer like we have not known before. Healing and salvation and miracles. Yes yes and amen!
P S. I very nearly caved and bought coffee today. But then I remembered I had loyalty points. So I got a coffee without spending any money on a coffee. So the money I would have spent can still go into the savings pot right? That's not cheating is it ? It cant be cheating - its only day three!!! :)
There were a few good points made
1) There is never a time when ' nothing' happens. Immediate healing might not happen. But encouragemment, support, friendship, care, love, committment, standing alongside.... all of that happens every time we pray for someone.
3) Sometimes God is more concerned with something else about the person than immediate healing. Often in the Bible we see Jesus forgiving peoples sins, apparently only healing them of their physical infirmities as an ' afterthought' It reminds me of the time I went up for prayer about my memory. I was getting concerned as I was having major lapses and did actually think I might be starting with early onset alzheimers. The nice ladies on the prayer team asked me what I wanted prayer for. I told them. They prayed about something completely different! I was surprised and somewhat cross. But lo and behold a few weeks later someone else came up to me and started talking about that very thing the prayer ladies had said. And I started to realised that God was onto something. The issue wasnt my memory it was something else and as I started to think about that and respond guess what ? The memory difficulties began to recede. Im still not the sharpest tool in the box but Im no longer seriously thinking I might be losing my mind.
It can be hard work and rather discouraging to keep on praying and keep on asking. Especially when your prayers seem to get no further than the ceiling. We've been praying for our house to sell for three years. I've been praying for family members to meet Jesus for thirty years. We can get weary and its tempting to give up. Which is why its always really good to get together with other people to pray about these longstanding issues. We can bear one another's burdens in praying. I know that my prayer triplet have often picked up the baton for me when I have run out of steam in prayer. And I have found Im able to pray for them and their burdens easily because they are my friends and I love them. We want the best for each other and have each others hearts and backs.
I hope you have people like that in your life. And that you dont give up praying, piling on the stones, releasing the tentacles, asking , seeking , knocking. I actually believe we are about to enter a time of answered prayer like we have not known before. Healing and salvation and miracles. Yes yes and amen!
P S. I very nearly caved and bought coffee today. But then I remembered I had loyalty points. So I got a coffee without spending any money on a coffee. So the money I would have spent can still go into the savings pot right? That's not cheating is it ? It cant be cheating - its only day three!!! :)
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