Where did anyone get the daft impression that, the minute you decide to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you hand over the reins of control to Him, your life is going to be peachy keen without a worry in the world?
Jesus never promised that life would be easy being a believer in Him and the Father Almighty. In fact, he said the world would hate us for our beliefs. How's that for a marketing angle! Somehow Saatchi and Saatchi would never have used that tagline had they been brought in to promote Christianity as a new religion.
So having set that line of thinking out first, I feel I can now continue with my post.
It's fair to say that the month of November has brought several challenges for me. Firstly a devastating piece of family news which I referred to in my previous blog. On top of that, my husband has been stressed beyond measure with his job which has had a knock-on effect on our marriage. I also managed to damage myself during my keep-fit class which resulted in me being on crutches for a week and no exercise for the last 6 weeks. Yup, it's been pretty shocking.
It's very easy to get caught up in one's own issues but then I had email and twitter exchanges with a dear friend of mine and it turned out she too was suffering from various physical, emotional and relational issues. We compared war stories. Actually that is exactly it - they are war stories.
Let's not forget, the devil is no admirer of people who have given God free rein in their lives so he is out to get us - big time! There's a couple of well known (and well worn) verses in 1 Peter 5 " 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. " Now I'm not saying that every single bad thing is directly from the devil. That is crazy. Life is messy - fact! We have consequences of sin, be it selfish choices on a personal, corporate or national level.We live in a broken world so some of the difficulties we experience are just the result of living but other times, you get to realise that some things just aren't a coincidence.
As my friend and I talked, we put two and two together and the figure kept coming up as four. We pieced sequences of events together, looked at breakthroughs we'd been experiencing, noted prayers we'd made and it just fit.
So we agreed to cover each other with prayer, to pray for each other, for our husbands & marriages, for our families.
It was amazing how quickly the atmosphere changed for both of us personally. We both felt a surge of faith. No, our circumstances did not improve immediately and some of those things we discussed are still very tough. But what changed first was our faith in God, we began to encourage one another to believe that our God is for us, not against us. Our prayers became focused and no longer by rote (which, if we are honest, can happen from time to time). We began to get words and pictures for each other, words of encouragement, pictures which either encouraged or gave direction on how to pray more effectively for these events which were troubling us.
We are walking in this season at the moment. I feel so grateful that God loves me so much that, in the midst of many troubles, He would have provided me with such a friendship that I could share my heart, my sorrows and troubles, that my friend could do the same and that we would be able to stand together before Christ and petition Him for help and grace to deal with these issues.
So the point of this post is to say do not lose sight of the value of prayer with others. There is something amazing that happens when two or more people start to agree in prayer and invite God's Spirit to get involved. God loves to hear such prayers. He is a loving Father, He wants so much to be a part of our lives and for us to turn to Him when times are tough.
If you have a friend or relative who believes in God and whom you trust, if life is getting on top of you, don't be shy, let them in then agree to pray about it together. The power of praying together is amazing. Jesus even encouraged it.
Matthew 18:19
"Again, I tell you that if two on earth
agree about anything you ask for,
It will be done for you by My Father
in Heaven".
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