My mother and I talk a lot about the state of the world and the things we see happening to people we love and just people in general. It has become a sad conversation when all you hear about is death, sickness, destruction, and just one negative situation after the other.
So, we ask ourselves what are we supposed to be doing? What are God’s children supposed to be doing during these times? One part of the answer is for us to pray.
Not only should we be praying but, we should be studying about how to pray so that we are effective and productive in shifting the atmosphere and the situations around us and in the lives of others. And in order to be effective in prayer you need to believe that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. And then to take it a little deeper you need to know what it is that God says He would do and who He is. Dust your bible off this year and get to know God!
James 5:16 says; “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. NIV In the King James version of the bible it talks about a fervent prayer. I looked up the definition of fervent and it means displaying a passionate intensity. That is what we need in our prayers is passion and compassion for the things that we are concerned about.
My mother told me that God had instructed her to gather a group of women that would come together and pray. But not only would this group be praying but we needed dedicated women who understood the assignment of prayer. We couldn’t just come together to pray these generic, surface prayers but we needed to listen to the voice of God through the Holy Spirit for direction on how we should be praying. We needed to know what to pray against and what to pray to be released, we needed to pray God’s word over certain situations and most importantly we needed to pray with expectation.
As my mother gathered the names of some of the women that fell on her heart to be a part of this group, she also realized that not everyone would be disciplined to join and that was okay because it is more about being obedient to God than to have any certain amount of people. As we navigate this time of covid we are trying to get our footing established with this assignment.
Even though we are a small group at this point we are making a difference I believe. Even in my own life I can say I have seen and felt the results of prayer of one of my friends who is a part of our praying women’s group. One quick testimony about the power of prayer is one day I was in training for my new journey of dialysis, and I was having some extreme pain during the procedure. At that same time my friend texted me asking how I was doing, and I explained to her what I was going through at that very moment. She didn’t even hesitate, she said I am praying for you right now. Within minutes the pain I was experiencing stopped! I immediately advised my friend that her prayers came through and God heard and answered them for us. That is the power of prayer that is still relevant today and is needed now more than ever.
I challenge you to learn to pray and grow your relationship with God this year.
Be blessed L
