Pray Without Ceasing…Dishwater Disciple Style
It started at 6:19am.
A text message arrived, “I need prayer.”
I was taking advantage of the opportunity for a little more sleep, actually having a weird dream, so I was glad for the “interruption.” A friend with troubling health conditions was having a rough time prepping for a test, both physically and emotionally.
No problem. “Lord Jesus, show compassion by granting release from the severe pain, and give strength. You are our Healer.”
I began talking to Jesus about the desires I had for this friend as I made coffee, fed the cat, and fried a couple of our chickens’ eggs (YAY!) for my husband’s breakfast.
The day before I had been wrestling with these verses:
If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so become My disciples. (Another translation says “prove to be my disciples”) John 15:7-8
That’s quite the promise. What does it mean to abide in Jesus? What does it look like to have His words abide in me? Having whatever I ask for be done for me…sounds amazing!!! These answered prayers show God to be who He is! How I would love for that to characterize my life! Just like Jesus!
8:54am I received a text from the one I was supposed to meet for prayer and counsel, “I’m going to be in bed resting. Thanks for understanding.” More prayer as I cleaned up in the kitchen and got ready to go out to tend the garden. “Lord, bring relief from the pain and give rest.”
Then about 9:30am, a call came in. “I need help! Something’s wrong with me!” More prayer as I made arrangements for a cross-country bus ticket, and prayed my dying printer through the process of generating the ticket and the itinerary. “Lord, comfort and protect. Make Your guidance clear.”
Continuing to chat with Jesus about these three, I went out to the plot of ground I intended to plant with carrots, beets, onions and greens. The Hub reminded me that this patch would likely be trampled when we build the new fence. “Okay, Lord. Show me where to plant the things that were supposed to go there, and how to keep the chickens from eating all the new plants.”
Around 1pm, two text messages prompted intense prayer, pressing into darkness, asking for light and wisdom, for insight into what God was after! The shovel became a weapon of warfare as I sorted weed from dirt, carved a trench for a weed barrier, and whacked the dirt clods in effigy of the large chunks of darkness that were afflicting young friends of mine and their families. “Jesus, You are the Mighty Victor. You have conquered sin and death and Satan! Make Your victory known here! Show me how to pray!”
…The day was not over, nor was the praying. Lord, let there be fruit from my asking!
We are commanded to pray without ceasing…I guess that’s what it looks like, at least for this one who is
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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