Thursday, April 7, 2016

Don't Miss the Opportunity

  

  

Prayer 


Gracious Father,  O Great and Mighty God of all Creation! We Exalt thee. Thank you for tender mercies day after day. Open my heart that I may offer bold prayers of faith to you. Help me to focus, not on fancy rhetoric or vain repetition but to focus on a prayer offering before You. Give me grace to see the opportunity to pray with and for others and the courage to take it. Bless parents, teachers, as well as administrators who work with children. In Jesus' name, Amen. 



Don't Miss the Opportunity by Veronica Garrett 

 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 
 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. (James 5:15-17)

One day I entered an alteration store to be greeted by a middle aged woman of Asian descent. I tried on her dress for alteration and as the dark haired Asian woman bent to her knees she did so in noticeable distress. I witnessed her pain in the mirror as she stood for the alteration. We begin to have conversation and it was true the middle aged Asian woman's back pain was nearly unbearable.  
This bothered me even as she changed into her clothing and returned to the counter to receive her ticket. Seeing that the alteration lady's job required for her to swat with her ailing back bothered me. As I was giving her my name and information at the ticket counter I realized that the radio is playing a Christian station. In a split second decision before I walked out the door I asked the Asian lady, do you mind if I pray to ask God to heal you? 
The look of surprise followed by excitement entered the alteration lady's face as she readily agreed. The two of us humbly stood before the throne of grace petitioning God to heal the alteration lady's back.  A week later when I picked up her altered garment the middle age Asian woman eagerly testified that although God didn't heal her instantly he did heal her from the back pain. A couple of days later while laying on her bed she felt His healing power deliver her completely from the back pain. She had even given testimony at church as to what the Lord had done. 
How many times do people share stories of distress or illness and we miss the opportunity to pray for or with them?  How often do we tell people I will pray for you but fail to remember to do so? Only to remember the next time we see them. There are times that praying with someone at the time may not be the best thing to do, for example in a work environment. Yet far too often we miss the opportunity to used the loaded weapon God has given us called prayer. Scripture teaches us that Elijah was a man just like us and he prayed and it didn't rain for three and a half years!
 I can't begin to tell you how many times I've missed the opportunity to pray with or for someone in great pain or need. Quite recently a woman with surmountable trials approached me while standing at an ATM machine.  She caught me completely off guard because people don't normally talk to you while standing behind you at an ATM! She was full of obscenities toward her soon to be ex-husband. I can definitely say I missed the opportunity.
Young children often believe more in the power of a mother's healing kiss than we do in God's powerful response to the batters and bruises of broken lives. Even more than a mother who bends to kiss a scratch as streaming tears are quieted, is my God's eagerness to answer when His children are in need.  He tells us that we are often lacking because we miss the opportunity, we simply fail to ask. He is leading us to be prayerful, while longing to be lavish to us. Please, don't miss the opportunity to pray. 
  

 

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