As I spend my Monday morning lazily drinking coffee and catching up on your posts, one of my dear friends is sitting through an intervention that will lead to hospitalization and force her out of a very full, busy, and exciting season of life. And then my mind drifts to another good friend who has already been hospitalized for her risk of self-harm and who can't seem to get a leg up in the battle.
And then I read Pearl's blog about having faith and the gift of faith... and Lissa's about praying specifically and not just generally for change... and then I remember how very helpless I feel to pray about anything because when my heart has felt far, any attempts at prayer make me feel like I'm treating God like a genie in a bottle... so will you two join me in praying for them? Until it is more public knowledge I can't share their names, but of course the Lord knows them both intimately.
God, I am thankful for the community of believers you have scattered across our state and country (and world!), and I am thankful that because of our common bond in You, I can fall back on them for support and prayer, even for people they don't know. I thank you that neither of these friends battle alone, but that they have people who love You and know You and are praying with You for them as they fight for their lives. I pray that today would be a day of victory in both of their lives and in the battles they fight individually. I pray for those conducting the intervention, that they would be like Stephen not only as men and women of faith and the Holy Spirit, but as men and women who are able to speak grace and truth together. I pray for an outflow of compassion from Your heart into theirs, that they would have hearts that see and feel the struggle that is so real in my friend's life. Mostly I thank you Lord for the truth that sin has been beaten and that death has been overcome. I pray that that truth would resound more loudly and clearly in their lives today and in ours as well. Help me, help us, to be people of faith who not only pray but truly believe that what we have prayed for can and will be granted. Thank you Jesus for interceding, and thank you Holy Spirit for putting into words what my heart can't.
wow. life is so tough sometimes. we will definitely be praying for your friends and you as you navigate how to best be in their lives over the next few weeks and months.
ReplyDeleteI feel like as I was reading this again this morning that God impressed upon me that we can have faith for God's healing in their lives on their behalf - Like we read in the gospel accounts about the friends lowering their disabled friend through the roof or Jairus asking Jesus to heal his daughter.