(Note: Happy Mother’s Day to the women around me who have led by example, by being courageous women of faith, whether out loud or silently over their Bibles. I love each and every one of you dearly, and you’ll always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you for praying. -C)
A few days ago at work while looking up a random verse in Psalm 144, I found myself weeping. I’d come to this particular passage for one verse, and I found left in awe at how God’s word has the ability to speak to us today, and not just in the time it was written.
I was left with this simple and beautiful reminder: God is my rock and my fortress, and I will praise Him even before He delivers me from whatever I might be facing.
Not so long ago at Bible study, I felt pressed to pray for some teenagers of the ladies in my group, and so I did. I was then struck with the image of how crucial praying women are not only in a home, but in a community. Praying women are like the corner posts in a house over people inside, and what a precious thing that is. As a young woman of faith, I love listening to people pray aloud. Sometimes they’re short and sweet, sometimes they’re full of anguish and grief, sometimes they’re poetic and the words are laced together in a symphony of words that would put a poet to shame. But, they’re all intimate and a beautiful verbal expression of our personal walks with Jesus.
I’ve been marvelling (and weeping) at how at some point in time, a lady somewhere (whether it was my Mom, or Grandmother or Great Grandmother or a family friend) was praying for me when I was a teenager, or a child, or a baby, or before I was even born.
As a little girl, my first memory of my Mom is a poignant one in my mind. She’s seated on the ugliest orange chair I’ve ever seen, legs neatly crossed. Her eyes are closed and her Bible is open on her lap, pages crinkled with time and marked carefully with notes put there by her. Between the pages are a few momentos; cards made lovingly by my siblings, or a photo of us. She’s praying in the wee hours of the morning, before the house is busy and she’s focussed on getting us out the door to school. I grew up thinking that prayer was simply a normal part of a Mom’s day, and as a child, I didn’t fully realize just how special that was. When you grow up in a house where prayer is readily observable, you don’t only get to witness someone praying and seeking out a personal relationship with God, but how it unfolds and impacts life around you.
I remember Granni praying with me before my sister was born. I never met my Great Grandmother, but I’m told that she knew her Bible inside and out and was a prayer warrior. What a legacy to be a part of, when you’ve grown up with women praying around and over you.
I get emotional when I think on how because a woman chose to spend time with God in prayer, how that has so clearly impacted my life. How special is that! That a woman prayed for me whether in infancy, childhood, teen years or young adult, that my feet would keep in step with the Holy Spirit, that I would come to know and experience God’s great love for me, that my identity would always be firmly planted in the Gospel, and that God would use my life story in a beautiful way to love on those around me as I go through life.
Ladies, we need to pray for our families, friends and for the things going on around us! And not praying in just asking and hoping like how we typically approach prayer, but praying and asking and then receiving.
When we ask and hope, we wish something and we like for God to do something, so we send up a prayer and we think, ‘I’ll ask and see what God will do. Maybe He’ll answer it, and maybe He won’t, but let’s hope for the best’. Ladies! Scripture approaches prayer from the assumption that it is meant to be answered! That it is meant to get results!
We must come asking for His will to be accomplished and that His name will be glorified. His will needs to come before our own, and I know that’s something I struggle with in praying. Sometimes I don’t realize that I’m praying empty prayers because I’ve put my will before His. It’s okay to step back and ensure that the posture of our hearts is right in prayer. I want every ounce of my being to be pleasing to God, including my time spent with him in prayer.
As a single, young woman, I don’t want my time spent with God in prayer to be a chore or something I have to check off a list. I want to be standing in front of an altar someday with a young man and be able to say, ‘Love, I’ve prayed for our whole future together before I even knew you. I know we’re going to have our share of ups and downs, and I can’t wait to go through all that with you. I’m excited for you to challenge and encourage me in my walk with God, and for me to do the same for you’ or to be old some day and watch children and grandchildren run around and to watch them grow up as I pray over them.
Don’t stop praying for those prodigal children. Don’t stop praying for unsaved loved ones. Don’t stop praying for healing and miracles. Don’t stop praying when you don’t get the answer you want or were expecting. Don’t stop praying when your prayers are answered.
Pray.
Psalm 144 (ESV)
Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
He is my steadfast love and my fortress,
My stronghold and my deliverer,
My shield and He in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!
Stretch out your hand from on high, rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten stringed harp I will play to you, who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace; may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring fort thousands and ten thousands in our fields; may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
The Northern Heart 