Time to Pray
Posted on May 3, 2016 by Graeme Wilson in Victory Call
Prayer has always been a part of my life growing up in a Christian home. You pray before meals, you pray at bedtime, you pray when you are sad, etc…. I was taught to pray for many different reasons throughout my life but it never really became a real and true part of my life as it is today.
We all pray for different reasons. I find, as you probably do also, that most people pray when they are in need. I am guilty of this, too. I also find that many people will pray in a corporate setting for all the things they should have been personally praying about in their own quiet time.
What has happened to us that we are not praying in a deep-rooted prayer time? I look at my own life and have realized that I am a self-sufficient woman. I have always worked since I the age of 14, took care of myself, etc…. Not that I did not want the Lord to be a part of my life but I think that I just got caught up in me taking care of me without even thinking about HIM!
Where do you stand in your prayer life? This subject came up for a very personal reason over the past few days. My husband has Epilepsy and this is something he has lived with since he was about 15. It is something that as a family we live with daily, but not everyone knows this or how draining it can be for us.
Many years ago we allowed people into our life by sharing what we were going through and as a lot of good Christian people do….the advice and “Christian Wisdom” and “Christian Soul Searching” that could be offered to us was. We know that many people were genuine with their concerns and advice. Yet we were also flooded with many negative comments that made us want to run and hide what we were going through.
The other night I posted on Facebook how we were living that night with three larger seizures and that my husband was feeling beat up emotionally and physically and that we needed prayer. This was a big step for us to make since we were so gun-shy to expose this part of our life with so many people. Well, the out-pouring of love, prayers and support was overwhelming and we truly can say that the next day we both had such a sense of peace.
I am not sure what the difference was but I can tell you from a wife, mother, and woman’s perspective, who’s living with someone with Epilepsy and someone with Autism, that I need prayer daily from my fellow saints. I do not need unsolicited advice, stares, gossip, and remarks like, “Is there sin in your life?” from people who do not know anything about us. What I do need is the prayer support that we find in Philippians 2:3-4
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Letting yourself be exposed and for people to really know what you are living with is not an easy journey. I am teaching myself to not advise others, but to truly pray as in Philippians for friends that come to me and ask for prayer. I am also learning to write it down when I say I will pray for you so that I don’t just say it and forget it.
Where do you all stand with your prayer life? Do you have a special relationship with the Lord in the area of your life? Do you go before the throne boldly for your friends?
I challenge you to pray over Philippians 2 and allow the Lord to work in this area of your life.
Lynn
Lynn Wilson has served on staff at America’s Keswick for the past 20 years. She has been involved in her local church in women’s ministries as well as speaking for other churches and retreats. Her mission statement would be to touch one life so in turn they can touch a life for eternity. Her greatest joy is to go home at the end of her work day and spend time with her family and enjoy her first ministry which is being a wife and mother. She has one teenage son at home, and one married son and daughter-in-law.