Women who faithfully pray still get sick. Life still disappoints. Children cause grief, husbands lose jobs or much worse, lose interest in marriage.
Yet these women still pray.
By praying, they know, “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9).
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6).
“‘In everything’ — not simply when our house is on fire or when our beloved spouse and children are gravely ill, but even in the smallest matters of life. We are to take everything to God — little things, very little things, even what the world calls trivial. Yes, we are to take everything, living all day long in holy fellowship with our heavenly Father and precious Lord Jesus.”*
*L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, p.386.
Model your prayers after those you find in Scripture.
Here’s an example based on Colossians 1:9-10. “Fill my friend with the knowledge of your will. Give spiritual wisdom and understanding. Help him to walk worthy of you, please you, bear fruit in every good work and know you more every day.”
Use Scripture to guide your prayers for the specific needs of your friends.
For example, for someone struggling with emotional pain, you can pray like this:
You are the God of all comfort! Comfort my friend in her affliction, so she can comfort others (from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
As you read the Bible, notice what it says about prayer. Then pray accordingly.
Here’s an example. Martha said to Jesus, “I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you (John 11:22).”
I read that and asked the Lord to make my prayers in line with His.
Someone we love is sick. When we heard, we stopped everything to pray.
I remembered that when my husband was driving, alone, over treacherous ice-covered roads, this friend knelt down in his living room, bent his head to the floor, and prayed silently for quite a while. My husband made it to safely to his destination.
Now it’s our turn to pray for this brother of ours.
May God be glorified once again!
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
(Psalm 147:4-5)
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Stolovy (SSC/Caltech).
We are small. Our earth is the white dot at the ten o’clock position between Saturn’s bright main rings and the thinner grey-brown ring.
I ask, “What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention (Job 7:17)?”
I wonder why when, “I call to God, he hears my voice (from Psalm 55:16-17).”
And then I remember, “God is love. . . . For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (1 John 4:16; John 3:16).”
Photo credit: Infrared, visible and ultraviolet light by the Cassini Imaging Team at NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
