Prayer

A Journey That Never Ends

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And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” Deuteronomy 34:4 ESV

If we look at the life of Moses we would see that he spent his entire life first preparing for and then finally fulfilling his calling to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He spent forty years as a shepherd until God appeared at the burning bush and then another forty leading the Israelites through the desert. But when it came time for Moses to get to the river and cross over, God told him that he would not be able to do so. As I come to the end of this year I think I know how Moses might have felt.  God has been at work throughout the past year; both in victories and defeats and has guided our family even when we have been unaware of His presence.  But as we approach the end of this twelve month journey I wonder what lies ahead.

God didn’t allow Moses to go with Joshua when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Instead He called Moses to look from the top of a mountain to see the land that he had waited for eighty years to enter. It seemed like a bum deal to me.  But God never forgot His promise and one day when Jesus climbed a high mountain in Israel, the scripture says that Moses appeared to him with Elijah. It took more than a thousand years but Moses did get to enter God’s Promised Land. In the same way with us as we finish our own journey the eternity that holds our promised land will only be beginning.

Praying for Others

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And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ Luke 18:1-3 ESV

For the last 23 years in nursing home ministry God has helped me to learn a lot about prayer. Though you may have never set foot in a nursing home you will discover that prayer requests are remarkably the same everywhere. People in nursing homes battle with depression, fatigue and loneliness around the holidays like everyone else. As an outreach worker you often ask yourself; “What is my small faith in the face of such needs?” Jesus gives us some answers in the story that He told about a widow and a judge. P1040884

First, she built a relationship with the judge by going to see him every day. Every day as he sipped his morning cup of tea, he would hear a knock. When he went to open his door there the widow would be again asking; “Give me justice in my dispute with my enemy!”  Maybe he even began to anticipate her visit and prepare for it. In our case we pray, not to some uncaring local magistrate; but to our Father in heaven. He is loving, merciful and kind. Why not begin where the widow began? Why not come every morning with expectant faith; knowing that Jesus is eagerly waiting to hear our knock on His door. Learning to pray for others means persistently building our relationship with God and then trusting Him to meet their needs.

Energy Assistance

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But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 KJV

I looked for the telephone number for energy assistance that was at the bottom of our power bill and began slowly dialing. “May I help you?” a friendly voice answered almost immediately.

“I was wondering if I could apply for low income help for our energy bill this winter because I haven’t been working full time.” I humbly said.

“Okay well let me get your information. “The lady began. First I gave my name, address and date of birth. Then began a series of questions about our family size, estimated income, and how much money we had in our bank account. “Well I see you will qualify.” The lady finally told me.

“Wow that’s great, so what do we do next?” I asked

“First there’s some bad news.” she said apologetically. “The problem is that  our state’s low income heating assistance program has run out of funding this year.”

Did you ever stop to realize that God created us with needs so that we would come to Him for His heavenly assistance program? When we call to Him in prayer, He won’t tell us He’ll call back later when the funding is approved. His riches in glory never run out! If we need mercy, healing, encouragement, or strength; these are always on hand and available for immediate deposit. God’s promise is that if we trust in Him alone, our bill will be paid in full and all the energy assistance we need will be freely supplied through our Jesus Christ our Lord!