The Reason We Pray

 

I would like to share some things on my heart concerning prayer and its importance. In order for my readers to understand what prompted my thoughts, I need to give some background. So, here goes:

Not too long ago I read a dismal post written by someone working as a missionary to an orphanage. I'm not sure if the missionary's work is supported by the individual's church or not. Most of the missionaries I have met come from within a particular denomination and are supported by individuals within that denomination making commitments to give on a regular basis. I am unaware if this missionary has that sort of backing or if he/she simply saw the need and ventured out on his/her own to fight the good fight of faith and live out the scripture that tells us to take care of the widows and orphans. What I do know is this individual shares the needs of the orphanage through social media and requests financial support and prayer for them on a regular basis. I'm all for Christians doing the work of the Lord, spreading the gospel first by meeting the physical needs of those they are trying to reach. Jesus fed the people, meeting their physical needs. He was our example to meet not only the spiritual needs of the people but the physical needs as well. 

In the post I read, the individual expressed the feeling of being overwhelmed and desiring to simply give up because of the pain of watching the physical needs not being met. He/she then asked for prayer. Many others have been in the same position. I have been there myself, seeing a need and desiring to meet it yet being unable to do so. Watching others suffer is difficult. In response to his/her pleas, other believers commented they were praying for him/her. Some of them added words of encouragement, asking him/her to consider all options before giving up. Then a particular person (someone who claims to be filled with the Holy Ghost) commented, attacking those who said they were praying. I literally got sick on my stomach as I read the vile comments filled with bitterness towards those offering prayer. This person was calling those who said they were praying FAKE Christians, claiming the individuals were praying but not doing ANYTHING!

I couldn't believe what I was reading! What right does anyone have to claim to know the heart of anyone supporting an individual through prayer? Firstly, the Word of God tells us not to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing. Just because this individual could not SEE what those Christians have done or are doing, doesn't mean they are not actively working to further the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, when God places a calling on your heart, it is difficult to separate your calling from that of others. Yes, we are all called to reach the lost, and yes, we are all called to take care of the widows and orphans, but while you may be led by God to financially support a particular orphanage, I may be called by God to financially and spiritually tend to a group of elderly couples, widows, and handicapped individuals---which happens to be the ministry the Lord has called my husband and myself to do. The fact that I am unable to (on top of what I already do) financially support the orphanage supported by the person who made the original post, does not make me a FAKE Christian, and it doesn't make any of the other individuals who commented they were praying for the missionary FAKE either. When Christians, such as myself, are already giving to other ministries, and they choose to respond to such a post with prayers, it should NEVER be treated as if they are doing NOTHING! Prayer is EVERYTHING!

Philippians 4:6, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests made known to God." Jesus is the one who leads and guides individuals to give (whether monetarily or through labor), and He moves on people through prayer! The prayer and the supplication is to be made known to God. Prayer is the most valuable tool at our disposal! Prayer moves mountains!

There are multiple examples in scripture of God moving through PRAYER.

I Samuel 1:11 tells us that Hannah prayed for a son, and God answered that prayer, giving her Samuel, one of the greatest prophets of all time.

Acts 12:5 shows us that Peter was in prison, and God used the PRAYERS of the church to perform a miraculous prison escape. The believers prayed. They didn't post money to bail him out. They didn't plot a prison escape plan. They prayed, and God used those prayers to shake the foundations and set Peter free. 

II Kings 19:19 tells us that Jerusalem was under attack. Hezekiah prayed, and Jesus used those prayers to send angels to fight the battle!

George Muller started many orphanages, and from the onset, he set his mind and heart that he would never ask for money from anyone. When there was a need, he went to Jesus, and Jesus saw his faith and answered. There are so many testimonies of times when there was no money, no food, no milk to take care of the children, and when he faced those obstacles, he didn't stand out on the street corner and beg, he TRUSTED God! And God rewarded his trust. 

What am I saying? Am I saying people can't share the ministry they do with others? No, I'm not saying that. Personally I like knowing what ministries are out there. Many people use that knowledge to allow God to speak to them about which ones He desires them to financially support. Am I saying that all Christians are responsible to do is pray? No, I'm not saying that either. As a Christian, I am to seek God to provide for me and any ministry He places on my heart to do. As a Christian, I am to listen to the voice of God and OBEY, and there may be times when He speaks to me to send money to a ministry or an individual. Faith without works is DEAD. But no one has the right to assume that because an individual offers prayers to another, that the one offering prayer doesn't DO anything else for the Kingdom of God. And NO ONE filled with the Holy Ghost should EVER judge or ridicule anyone for praying, especially since it is prayer that sets in motion the answers to the needs. 

I John 5:14-15, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us---whatever we ask---we know that we have what we asked of Him."

So, why do we pray? What is the reason for our prayers? Prayer is what we are called to do. It is a weapon given to us by God. We fight the darkness in this world through prayer. We bring down strongholds through prayer. We move mountains through prayer. We lay hands on the sick, and they are healed through prayer, and through prayer food is multiplied. I have witnessed that one with my own eyes, watching food for about 50 people multiply to feed 100 and leave the family with leftovers to take home. When we saw the amount of people and the amount of food, we knew we had to believe God for a miracle, and He provided. God will always provide when we pray His will and believe Him. So for me to read multiple comments ridiculing believers for doing exactly what God calls us to do as believers, saddens me, and it worries me for the individual commenting with such bitterness over prayers being lifted up to God. There was a time when the disciples got angry and wanted to call down fire from heaven; Jesus told them they didn't know what spirit they were being influenced by at the time, and I have to wonder if this individual is being influenced by a similar spirit as the one that influenced the disciples in that scripture. 

So, if you have been called to do a work for God, know that God desires you to go to Him with the needs, and He will provide them. He will move on the hearts of people. If you don't have the ability to give financially, but you have time to pray for ministries, know that your prayers are crucial and just as important as monetary giving. If you are a minister or missionary doing what God has called you to do, know that Jesus is right there with you, and He will provide everything that ministry needs.  

Be Blessed and Be Made Whole,

Pinky

I Am Clean

 

Today the world celebrates the Passover, the day our Lord willingly became the propitiation for our sins. Let us keep in remembrance what happened that day; as the spotless lambs were being slaughtered for the sacrifice, THE SPOTLESS LAMB was crucified! (Revelation 13:8, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast), whose names are NOT written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.") Jesus came knowing His destiny was to die the horrible death of the cross, and yet He came! Why? Because His Holiness demands His wrath punish the wicked? The truth is His Holiness does demand the wicked are punished, but He came because His LOVE said, "I will take the punishment upon Myself so that those I created in My image (Holy and Blameless) can be washed clean of Sin and once again reflect My image. I will take the punishment upon Myself so that I can live INSIDE of them! I will take the punishment upon Myself so they will have the POWER to OVERCOME Death, Hell, and the Grave." 

Lately I've been in a place where I've felt as if I have failed God and my family. I haven't felt that I've been walking in the Power that I have through the Holy Ghost. I've been beat down, defeated, and depressed. Wednesday night at church we sang the song, "I Am Clean", and the words of it struck a serious chord with me.

"I see shattered, You see whole.

 I see broken, You see beautiful.

And You're helping me to believe.

You're restoring me piece by piece.

There's nothing too dirty, that You can't make worthy.

You wash me in mercy. I am clean.

What was dead, now lives again.

My heart's beating, beating inside my chest.

Oh, I'm coming alive with joy and destiny.

Cause You're restoring me piece by piece.

There's nothing too dirty that You can't make worthy.

You wash me in mercy. I am clean.

Washed in the blood of Your sacrifice. 

Your blood flowed red and made me white

My dirty rags are purified. I am clean."

As we sang that song, the words of it bored a hole in my heart, and memories of who I once was surged to the surface. As I looked at who I had once been, I realized that I HAD been WASHED in the blood of HIS sacrifice, and tears made their way down my cheeks. 

How easily we forget who we were and all He suffered so that we don't have to suffer for eternity. It's that simple. His LOVE IS more powerful than HIS wrath. His wrath will always punish sin, but His LOVE (wow, just think about it) His LOVE washed away the need for His wrath. How do I know this? Well, I have experienced His forgiveness. I've experienced His cleansing, and I have partaken of His Word, the Bread of Life. (James 1:21, "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." 1 Corinthians 11:24, "And when He had given thanks, He brake it (the bread), and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.") We are supposed to consume the Word, and He is that Word that we consume. He is the bread broken for us. 

Once upon a time all I could see was what I deserved. I saw my eternal punishment because it is what I deserved. I had made a lot of mistakes. What? whoa...that's a really modern, non-offensive way of saying the truth! I had SINNED. There I said it. They weren't mistakes; they were sinful acts, and I KNEW it! I KNEW I didn't deserve forgiveness, and because I didn't deserve it, Satan convinced me that God was incapable of forgiving me. I was depressed before Satan got a hold of my mind and convinced me of that because of the sins I had committed and the condemnation I felt due to them, but once Satan got a hold of my mind, I was thrust into a deep well of depression that led me down the path to wanting to die to end my pain, and that eventually led to a moment when I nearly accomplished stopping the bombardment in my mind. God spared me that night, and that day before I made that attempt, He had a friend give me a Bible for my birthday! He KNEW what would happen to my mind that night, that it would break and I would snap...unable to take anymore pain, and He gave me the answer before I even got there. Me, I was stopped. Not everyone is. My cousin wasn't as fortunate as I was. No one stopped him, and now his pain has been passed on to all who loved him. Having seen suicide from both sides of the coin, I know the pain it inflicts on the survivors, but I also feel that those who angrily say it is a selfish act simply do NOT understand that in that moment, you simply can't "see" what your actions will do to others, you only FEEL the pain you're in, and you simply can't take it any longer. 

I didn't deserve God's forgiveness, so how could He forgive me? Those were my thoughts, and yet, He DID! How then? How did He do it? He didn't wash me because I said words. He didn't wash me because I went to an altar to pray. He didn't wash me because I asked to be baptized. He washed me because the "foolishness of preaching"  spoke truth to my heart, and I BELIEVED in Him---Jesus, the Creator, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Everlasting Father, the One True God---and His sacrifice! (1 Corinthians 1:21, "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.") I believed He shed His blood to wash away my sin. I believed He rose from the dead, and that the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead could live in me if I repented and was baptized for the remission of my sins. That's the Word. I had to be born again by the Spirit of God that would quicken my mortal body! 

I left church Wednesday night knowing that God had a reason when He told the Israelites to place Stones of Remembrance from the Jordan in the Promised land. Those stones weren't on the other side of the river where they had come from. They were in the Promised land. A place to go and remember where they had once been but were no longer. We NEED to stop, go to the stones of Remembrance of who were once were and REMEMBER what He did for us, and renew within us that gratefulness for what He did, and walk in the newness of being "clean."

Remembering the person you were who is now dead ISN'T wrong. Reviving the dead man is what is wrong. Living day in and day out in the guilt of who you were is wrong. Acting as if you weren't that "big" of a sinner is wrong. Not realizing the depth of the wickedness of your heart...no matter how "clean" and "sinless" you kept YOURSELF...that is wrong. (Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?") It doesn't matter if you have always had a strong moral compass and refused to drink, smoke, chew, cuss or sleep around. Have you ever been angry? Have you ever judged someone? Have you ever gossiped? Have you ever made fun of someone? or maybe you simply compare yourself to others and thanked God that you never did this or that...well, your heart was just as black as those who committed outward sins, and that is what is wrong. To simply REMEMBER where God brought you from, that is something we NEED! 

Washed in the blood of HIS sacrifice. His blood flowed red and made ME white. My dirty rage are PURIFIED. I AM CLEAN!

Be Blessed and Be Made Whole,

Pinky