This morning began early as I awoke even before 4:00. Early morning restlessness is not uncommon among the elderly and is often shaken off, slumber regained. That was not the case this morning.
Today was jammed packed from what seemed like necessary appointments, all meaningful to my life personally and professionally. I would have plenty of time to get my morning devotionals behind me, even communicate back with a few on line late night requests, made after I had left for bed around 10:30. I would then hit the road for a day overly scheduled.
Yet in one of those slots was a request to spend time with a dear servant of God, home from the mission field. She, her husband and now five children, the youngest born in May of 2014, had been serving The Shan Dai peoples in Thailand. They just received a most devastating prognosis regarding the lumpectomy that had become her reason for returning from the field early this year. The longer I considered her need and the power of prayer, the more I realized that my calendar needed to be free from distractions both before my visit, so I could pray, and after so as not be rushed!
Why go over and mumble words of prayer, without the full presence of mind and spiritual capacity to shift the forces of evil that have come against her. I would need to spend time with the Lord, if my time with her was to avail anything other than friendship. This young servant of God deserves much more and in fact needs a visit from the God of Lazarus.
These words may sound strange, even radical to the American Christian but there is a God in heaven and we do have access to Him through Christ Jesus. We have been instructed to pray, to wait upon the Lord so that He might renew our strength. When we desire to be a part of the supernatural, we have to move above our own strength and that can only come through prayer.
It was during my prayer time that I began to realize the gift that her challenge would soon bring into my life. I found myself pouring out my heart before the Lord, my heart broken and tears flowing. During these precious moments, I realized how few people must even know this as an option. In fact, perhaps my reason for writing this is the realization of just how long it had been since I cleared my calendar from all the good things that clutter my life and really sought after the Lord.
The last thing I want is to be misinterpreted. My highest purpose in writing is to just express the joy of being alone with the Lord and the difficulty of getting there. Missing my standard Friday morning meeting with NCS was not a tough decision because the speaker will also be with us tonight. Cancelling my 9:00 real estate listing was just as simple, another broker could handle that. The long scheduled out of town lunch to celebrate a dear business friend’s honor was admittedly more difficult; she has always been there for me! She too understood.
Having done all that, I was ready to engage in prayer. Once into my place of prayer and given the urgency of the need for my friend, I began to pour out my heart before the Lord. It was there that I realized how difficult it is to get alone with God. Not just being alone in a room, but getting alone! Escaping life and making the connection, spirit to spirit, so vital for effectual fervent prayer. That is no easy task. I am not even sure but what it may take a lifetime, perhaps generations to fully understand prayer.
Am I truly so blessed having been raised by those who believed in prayer, practiced prayer, and demonstrated the power of prayer? Now, to have the grace to know how to get there myself?
I think so! May I practice it more! It’s not about all that I do for others that counts in this world. It is about learning who He is, and how to become like Him, even suffering with Him and His own.
We then occasionally experience an other world with Him. That was my privilege this morning.