Thursday, September 20

A call to prayer for all warriors

Friends and Warriors,
I would ask that you stand with me in prayer for a dear family friend of mine who has been hit with two insurmountable (it seems) events in their lives in the span of two days. I would ask that you stand in agreement in my request to the Father.
Heavenly Father,
You created the span of the heavens and the girth of the earth. Everything that exists, exists because of Your Hand and Your grace. Dearest Father, Abba, I cry out to You now for one of Your own who is in pain and those who know her in anguish as well.
Lord, You know Your child, Elizabeth, and the pain that she has endured fighting the cancer that has assaulted her body. Lord, You know that she is in what seems to be the final portion of her life. With the Doctor's prognosis, they have removed her off the chemo treatments due to the aggressiveness of this tumor that has destroyed all of her stomach. Heavenly Physician, if it is Your will please heal Your daughter from this and give her many more days in which to be a blessing to those who know and love her. But God, I ask if this is not Your will, that You free her from the extreme pain that she is suffering from. Give her the grace and peace to know that You are with her and await with loving and compassionate arms to bring her to Your Kingdom. Give the hospice volunteers the necessary compassion and grace to minimize the pain of the family who suffers through this also.
Father, Your son suffered on the Cross for us and the sins in which we were eternally separated from You and set us free. And, as Paul, we consider it an honor to suffer to the small degree that we do for the Saviour. But dearest Father, hear my plea for my sister in Christ, who is suffering a heartbreak with her grandmother's ailing health and who has had to deal with the loss of her husband's brother in Bangkok, Thailand just yesterday. Abba, Father, wrap Your arms around her and give her the comfort to cry out to You, to give to You her sorrows and sadness. Cast those burdens far from her, Lord, and give her the peace and wisdom that comes from Your knowledge of the future and the destination of her grandmother into Your waiting arms. Give her the comfort of Your will and the knowledge of Your mercy.
If it is Your desire, it will be Your will. If it is in accordance with Your will, it will be done. I ask for the wisdom to give comfort to those who are suffering, grace to allow the pain to flow into healing, and knowledge to affirm in the merciful and peaceful ways Jesus taught that You are with all who are suffering in this.
In Christ's name, on bended knee,
AMEN

Previous training required......

As is usually (and thankfully) the case, God answers His child's complaints, i.e. crying out, in His fashion and in His way. I was commenting about how the verse from yesterday's devotion seemed to mention obstacles in the form of members of the family being unmoveable in my purpose. And how I thought the family was referenced to the body, where I seem to get just as much support as I do dissention.

But I have dealt with disbelief and obstacles before in my life, and have either succeeded or failed in spectacular fashion.....but always in spectacular fashion. And, in the event of failure, I always get back up. That is what most people admire about me is that I've gotten up from some pretty disasterous wrecks and kept on.

And it is that previous experience, coupled with the knowledge that it was God's strength that helped me stand, that will help me here.

The Father of the church where I gave my eulogy for Jean Smith last Saturday asked me if I was going to establish a church independent of what I currently belonged to. I told him I hadn't been so informed yet, but it was interesting that he would ask.

It seems the churches of today, the mega-giant user-friendly ones, have forgotten the full force of the Gospel. Maybe that is where God will eventually lead me, but for now.....He's still working out the kinks. And my God is a mighty God, so the overcoming is just as interesting as the becoming in this purpose journey.

He has protected me, opened avenues beyond my imagination, and given me an effective use of His gospel, in times past since my renewal and in times before my renewal. To think that He would help me overcome only certain things of equal harm only to prevent this from coming true seems to be contrary to what He's called me to do. Previous experience tells me otherwise.
He trains for a purpose, not just for fits and giggles.

So I will take the attitude of David before the Almighty King Saul.......before he goes out to stand down Goliath. This will help in my battle with my own Goliaths....

"Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine" Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." 1 Samuel 17:36-37(NIV)

Have you decided to face down your Goliaths??? Why not? If our God is a GREAT BIG GOD, then who can compare?

In Christ,
Jim