Lately, I’ve been thinking about, "What We Will Do to Hold American Together"
In our, “of this world age” the battle rages not only over the question of religion, politics and cornavirus in our public life. The very concept of faith is under attack. Sarcasm and unbelief mock faith and the sacrifices it brings forth. Yet no nation can long endure if it does not have among its people a deep reservoir of faith in all its forms knowing the truth that God is always there. But with in the dark tears, it seems you just don’t want to know. What is your song of prayer for America?
Psalm 91 is a protection Scripture that believers have turned to for thousands of years whenever there is danger. As the Times of Trouble are upon us, the prayer of Psalm 91 is comforting and effective when prayed from the heart by those who love God and are in relationship with Him.
When a trial or hardship occur and problems erupt from every angle. Hearts are broken. Emotions are all over the map. Self-worth and confidence plummet. Fears take root about what the future will look like. As a child, I would often say, “will I cope of being alone, I need my mother”. Every seemingly unanswered prayer request — laced with tears and repetitive requests of my needs, big and small — personified my fears that God wasn’t hearing or singing my prayers and pleas. I certainly didn’t have the power to change anything, no matter how hard I tried. This is when I would say to myself, “when thrown against the wall of hard times will I be a tennis ball or an egg. One cracks one bounce back, which one will you be”. How bright is your prayer light?
The longer time passed and prayers went unanswered, I began to feel those problems were just impossible for even God to fix. I secretly resolved to believe some of my prayer requests were simply unanswerable.
Ambiguous, unresolvable Cry:
So, you have hours of darkness pain many nights.
Sobbing so many hours.
Seeking to make it right.
Just didn’t have the spiritual power.
It seemed closed eyes to all of my tears.
In hope they’d disappear.
I tried not to let it show. Yearning for a daily Valentine’s Day Love.
Don’t You want to know; My presumption… Do you just want guesstimate?
I hated the place in which I’d found my apathetic heart; I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to believe that my prayers/cries were important to God, that He listened intently like a loving Father and considered my desires carefully. I wanted to believe that He was working for my good and not just answering prayer requests arbitrarily, like I pictured Him doing while He sat on his throne: “One for ‘to be answered’, three for ‘to be ignored’, two for ‘to be answered’, ten for ‘to be ignored.’”
Prayer is supposed to be matter-of-fact for Christians, taken for granted as part of the faith environment. Yet for me it was one of the most difficult resources to use appropriately and effectively in my relational life. “I don’t even know why I’m praying for this anymore,” I told myself spiritually, between sobs on a cold winter night while at the temporary children’s home. “It seemed like every time I prayed for something really big, God says ‘Thank you for your prayers, but that’s not My will; please accept this.’” I sat there perplexed, angry, hurt, and wanting to understand what was so difficult to grasp, For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive…The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
We are so thankful for prayer, we have God’s promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive specifically what we asked for( Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27) “What a Friend we have in Jesus” he has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for (1 John 5:14-15).
Many Christians have either lost part or all of their faith in the Lord as a result of getting hit with some severe torpedo shots. It took me a long time to full understanding as to why God will sometimes allow bad things to happen to good people in this life. Even though my personal faith levels in the Lord was shaken to its very core because of the severity of the storm cloud that had just struck me.
I realized that sometimes He delays His answers according to His wisdom and for our benefit. In these situations, we are to be diligent and persistent in prayer (Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1-8). Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God’s will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own.
It is every Christian’s right and responsibility to pray with others as the opportunity arises. A major reason people are reluctant to pray with others is their uncertainly as to how to go about it. They are unsure about why they should pray with others when to pray, how to pray, what to pray about and even if praying helps. For the Christian, praying is like breathing, easier to do than to not do. We pray for a variety of reasons. For one thing, prayer is a form of serving God (Luke 2:36-38) and obeying Him. We pray because God commands us to pray (Philippians 4:6-7). Prayer is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church (Mark 1:35; Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 13:1-3). If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray, we should also.
We pray to demonstrate our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word and bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for Ephesians 3:20). Prayer is our primary means of seeing God work in others' lives. Because it is our means of “plugging into” God’s power, it is our means of defeating Satan and his army that we are powerless to overcome by ourselves. Therefore, may God find us often before His throne, for we have a high priest in heaven who can identify with all that we go through Hebrews 4:15-16). May God glorify His name in our lives as we believe in Him enough to come to Him often in prayer to heal the divide.
God Bless You and This Ministry!
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