A Momma's praying heart

"Mama's prayers were always with me in the battlefields of life.  She prayed for me and said amen in the name of Jesus Christ."  Those are words from an old Merle Haggard song, "Mama's Prayers".

THERE IS NOT A TOOL WE HAVE AS MOM'S MORE POWERFUL THAN PRAYER.

I have prayed for my children in so many stages of their lives, and in each stage my prayers were different. When they were little I prayed that God would protect them.  I was a young mom who didn't know anything.   Those simple prayers may very well have kept them alive.

I began praying more earnestly for them when they started school.  My walk with God was closer then, so I was praying more.  I prayed they would do well at school.  I prayed when they had a test.  I prayed they would choose good friends and make good choices.

As they got into Jr High I began to pray for their future spouses.  I prayed that God was protecting them.  That they were being raised in Christian homes. I continued to pray for the protection of my children, I prayed they did well in school.  I prayed they were honoring God in their actions.

When my children started high school and started driving and started having more freedoms, I started praying if they were doing anything wrong, anything they shouldn't be doing that they would get caught.  If they were going to start down a wrong path I wanted that stopped before it began.

When they married I prayed for their marriages, and relationships.  I prayed Chris would be a good leader of his home.  I prayed Brittany would be a wife who respected her husband.

There came a point somewhere in their adult lives that I began to pray about their faith.  That it would be strong, and that it would be their own.  That it would be real.  The holy spirit began to say to me would you add to that prayer "no matter what it takes"?  Would you be brave enough to say "make my children's faith real to them no matter what it takes?"

Let me tell you, as a Mom that is a scary request.  That is a scary prayer to pray.  But I did.  I have watched my kids both go through difficult times.  Times that tried their faith and made them cling to Him.  I don't think God used those prayers of mine to cause difficult situations in my kids lives.  I believe those prayers were to increase my faith in God.  For me to trust in God's plan for my kids and not my own.

As a Mom one of the greatest things you can do is pray for your kids and then trust God's plan for their life.

1 Samuel 1:27 says, "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him."

3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth."

Moms and Dads there is no greater gift you can give your children than your prayers.

Jesus Waited for Two Days

I have been reading the story of the death and raising of Lazarus for a few days now.  There is so much in this chapter.  As I keep reading it there are two verses that just keep sticking out to me.

John 11:5-6, "So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days."

The verses before that tell me that it happened that way for the glory of God.  So that the Son of God would receive the glory from this.

When I am waiting for a prayer to be answered, or waiting to see a change in some one's recovery, or in a situation where I just don't feel like God is moving, I need to paraphrase that verse.  "Even though God loved Janet (or fill in the blank), he stayed where he was for the next two days, or weeks, or months, or years."

Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.  We know that.  We know he stayed with them when he was in the area. They were near and dear to his heart.  There was a special bond there.  The human side of Jesus might have wanted to be with his friends during this hard time.  But, he knew that God would receive more glory if he waited.  If he stayed where he was.  It was a bigger miracle to raise Lazarus from the dead, instead of  healing him from a sickness.

Jesus was willing to wait those two days.  He knew his friends would suffer a little, but he knew the ultimate end to the story.  He knew the outcome.  He knew they would be OK and that their faith might increase in the waiting.

So often we think only of ourselves.  We think about what we might be missing, or what we might be going through.  Or why doesn't God just fix this.  We think in the moment.  God sees two days or two steps ahead of what we can see in our selfishness.

If you are in the middle of a struggle, or if you are wondering what is taking God so long.  If your grief is to deep or your pain is pulling you under.  Just hold on.  Maybe God is using your current situation to glorify Him.  Maybe its not always about us.  Maybe, just maybe, it is so the Son of God will receive the glory.

I believe even though Jesus wasn't physically with Martha, Mary and Lazarus during those two days. They were in his thoughts and prayers.  They were on his heart.  He knew and felt their pain.  He is with us in those times too.  He may wait two days but we are never alone in our hurt.

Look at the crowd that had gathered in those two days. Look at the people who saw a miracle that day. God not only showed Martha, Mary, and Lazarus a miracle, many people who had come to comfort them watched and believed.

Our stories, our struggles, our hurts they are not really about us.  They are about God working in us and through us for his glory.

So, although Jesus loves Janet, sometimes he may stay where he is for two days, and that is OK.

Little ship/ Big ocean

Brett and I recently went on our first cruise.  An amazing, wonderful, fun trip.

When we pulled up to the port, and got out of the car I was amazed by the size of the ship.  I knew it was going to be big, but I was just not prepared for how big.  I remember thinking how is it possible for this huge, heavy boat full of people to stay afloat?

We got on and again I was astonished at the size, at how many floors there were.  How long the hallway to get to our room was.  It seemed we walked forever before we found our room number.

It's funny how fast perspective can change.  After two days of being out to sea and not seeing ANY land for two days I began to think about how small that boat really was in all that water.  Isaiah 40:12 says, "God measured the waters in the hollow of His hand."

Two days without seeing any land is a lot of measuring, thats a lot of water!

Brett and I went out on the deck one evening before going to dinner.  As I looked out over all that beautiful blue water, I thought about how small that boat really was.  As I thought about how small that boat was, I began to think about how small I was on that boat.  In the whole picture of things I was like a mite of dust on a piece of sand.  Brings into perspective how insignificant we really are.

But at that very instance the holy spirit spoke to my heart and said but isn't it amazing that as small  and insignificant as you are the God of the universe, the creator, wants communion with you.  God wants you to communicate with Him.  He doesn't NEED me to communicate with Him, he WANTS me to.

God wants to HEAR my prayers.  In the same way we as parents like to hear the sound of our children's voices and laughter.  God likes to hear mine, he likes to hear me pray out loud.  It's not a ritual, or something to cross off my to do list.  It's an honor and a privilege.  One I should not take for granted.  The God of the universe hears my prayers.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

When My Husband Prays for me

My two favorite texts to receive from my husband are "I love you" and "P".

The first one lets me know that he is thinking about me and that makes me smile.  But the second one "P", which is our code for praying for you, means even more.  It means that he went to the throne for me.  It means not just that he is thinking about me, but that he went one step further and is interceding for me.

There isn't a whole lot of things that will make a wife feel more protected or loved than to know that her husband spends time praying for her.  It makes you feel protected in two ways.  The first is obvious, your husband is asking God to watch over you, or to help you through a struggle, or just that you have a great day.

The second thing it does, it gives you confidence in your husbands relationship with God.  If he is praying for you then he is in communication with the Father.  If Brett is leading, and I am following him, I want to know he is seeking instruction from the right source. It gives me confidence in his leadership if I know he is praying and I see him reading his bible.

Another thing that melts my heart is when Brett prays out loud with me.  There are Sundays when Brett will ask me to go to the alter to pray with him.  There is something so humbling about hearing your husband pray and ask God to make him a better husband.  To ask for forgiveness in areas where he feels he has failed. To hear him thank the father for you.

Men if you want to melt your wife's heart, let her hear your earnest and heart felt prayers.  It will change your relationship.  It may also change your relationship with God.

1 Peter 3:7 "Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding  way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered."

Grace and Mercy

This week someone I knew was murdered.  I can not get her out of my mind.  And I can't get out of my mind how someone who was so sweet, loving, and caring toward everyone she met ends up  in a situation where her life comes to a tragic end.

I have been trying to reconcile that into Robbey's sermon from last Sunday.  His sermon was that our lives are not based on luck, they are not based on self determination.  They are based on the fact that God reigns in them.

For me there is something so totally humbling about that.  I come into contact with people whose lives just seem to suck.  I am sure you do too.  They just have one bad thing after another that happens to them. It is as if they are on a snowball of bad luck and it just picks up speed downhill.  Now some of it is because of choices or even past choices that are catching up with them.  But that isn't always the case.

So I have thought a lot about that this week.  God has given me an amazing life.  In fact, at times I am almost embarrassed by how good it is.  I have done nothing to deserve this life.  It is simply God's grace on my life.

I read something this week that said Grace is when God gives me good things I don't deserve.  Mercy is when God holds back what I truly do deserve.  And the two of these together are blessings.

There is a sense of gratitude for Jesus dying on the cross that I can never repay.  That I just have to accept as God's love.

But there is a sense of gratitude for his grace and mercy on my life that I feel the need to repay.  I didn't do anything to deserve God's blessings in my life, but I can certainly have a grateful heart that pays it forward.  God help me live a life that shows that same grace and mercy to others around me.

Ephesians 4:7 "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned (divide, allocate, assign) ."