God’s prayer warriors are our heroes of the faith. I have been a believer since I was a small child, but it wasn’t until I became an adult, and specifically after the birth of my first child, that I surrendered my life to Christ. I wanted to shout it from the mountaintops! When I informed an aunt of my decision for Christ, she was overjoyed and began to share that she had been praying for this day for me for YEARS! Since I was a teenager, in fact.
Reader, you are known and beloved by God, family and friends. While you may not be aware of it, I’m willing to bet that God has at least one, and quite possibly many, of His faithful warriors whose hearts He has moved to pray over your life. They have responded on bended knee, to praise Him for your successes, and to uplift you in whatever struggles you may be encountering. Simply rest in that knowledge, it is a sweet balm for your soul.
However, I do strongly encourage sharing concerns with others in those times when you may be feeling particularly vulnerable or burdened. When life rubs us raw on the inside, the thought of sharing our emotions may seem overwhelming and counterintuitive. The child in us just want to close the door on that drafty, cold world and curl up with a warm blanket, seeking shelter in sleep. Yet, comforting words can heal. They can bring about new perspectives giving us a source for renewed hope. Our truest hope is in the Lord; and there are many hands and hearts to reach for in securing that hope.
You may be more comfortable sharing with a complete and total stranger. Christian Broadcasting stations have prayer counselors on staff to speak with at all times. Local churches are another great resource in speaking with a pastor or staff member and if desired, having your concerns added to a faith-filled prayer chain. Most importantly, bring all of your concerns before the Lord. He wants to comfort you in whatever affliction you may be experiencing, you belong to Him. The Bible tells us that when we draw near to God, He draws near to us. (James 4:8)
While a saving faith happens once, at our second birth, the working out of our faith can be a daily occurrence. We never “arrive”, not until we’ve drawn our last breath, but we should continually grow in our knowledge of God, and in putting our full trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy, and He will answer when you call upon Him. We don’t always see the answer right away, but in retrospect, we will see that His answer was the very best possible outcome for our situation. That’s because His holy love for us is perfect and His knowledge of us is complete.
We do not serve a haphazard and aloof God. He is well acquainted with every facet of our life, and as we walk closely in our relationship with Him, this same pattern continues to emerge, again and again, of a very real and connected presence with God throughout our lives. In turn, this serves to draw us closer and closer to the One, who with outstretched arms, deemed us worthy to die for, so that those arms could then hold us for all eternity.
*A little backstory worthy of sharing concerning this writing:
My design team chose the image I used for this writing, and they had originally positioned it under the devotional section, but it was not captioned. I decided I would caption it myself. So I sat with it for a moment, to see how it would speak to me. The first line of this writing would become the caption, “God’s prayer warriors are our heroes of the faith.” It just really seemed to capture what was going on in the image. Or so I thought. When I went to bed that evening, I stayed awake for hours formulating a blog post in my mind that would actually work well based on that picture. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, even though some of my inner dialogue seemed confusing to me. Why was I being so intentional and specific about reassuring folks that others are praying for them? Where was all this coming from? I was also making other mental notes I wanted to remember for future blogs, so I just kept listing key phrases in my mind as I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning as I got into my car, pouring forth from my speakers were the following lyrics. I had never heard them before until that very moment:
Somebody’s praying for me
Somebody’s knocking on heaven’s door
Somebody’s praying for me
Somebody’s lifting me up to the Lord
I knew it had to be
Somebody down on their knees
Somebody praying for me
I was blown away in this grace-filled moment because I felt as though the Lord was affirming that I had correctly received the message He intended for me to write (which I did post later that evening). It’s so incredibly humbling to be used by God for His purposes, that we can speak His word to another in need. And when we receive those little “God nods”, it’s like “yes!”, we are actually doing ministry together!! On the ride home that day my Christian station was playing these beautiful words, I’ve got peace like a river…in my soul. My day was bookended with grace upon grace. God is with us, God is for us, God wants to use us.