Let Us Be Weak… And Pray

For Tuesday at Fivebucks this week, Ramona Doyle offers us her thoughts on prayer…

I have been walking with the Lord now for almost 33 years, through good times, and trying times as well. And I’ve learned many lessons about prayer—as many from not praying as I have from being faithful to pray. As I look back over the years, one thing becomes painfully apparent: to not pray is to miss out on the Lord’s ordained means for communion with him and the wonderful blessings he promises in his Word for those who pray. You don’t have to live long to realize that “life is bigger than me,” full of trials and hardships. Apart from the intimacy with the Lord that prayer affords, though, we can remain disconnected from the realization that “God is bigger than life”. There is one season in my life when both of these truths came strikingly into play—when we were seeking to adopt our youngest child, Dayrin. We had already adopted Jonathan from Bolivia and were convinced that the Lord had at least one more child for us. God didn’t move a mountain or part the Red Sea to make the adoption happen; but he did meet us and move in our situation in some very specific ways as we lifted our voices to him in prayer.

Just weeks before traveling to Bolivia for our second adoption, all U. S. — Bolivian adoptions ceased. As I cried out to the Lord I was struck with how quickly the Lord met me with peace. Then, as we believed the Lord wanted us to place the adoption on hold to care for my aging mother in her declining years, I cried out to the Lord again as I watched my own youthful years ticking away. What comfort I received in the knowledge that the Lord had heard my prayers when, the next day, a sister in the church approached me with the prophetic encouragement to ‘not fret as I watched my hair turning gray, because the Lord’s timing in this adoption would be perfect’. Later, when I confessed fear to the Lord in prayer, worrying about whether the four year old Guatemalan girl who had been referred to us would knit to us, the Lord quickly brought comfort from his word that when she was knit in her mother’s womb, “in (his) book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for (her), when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16) God did knit Dayrin into our family – she has truly been a Doyle from the beginning. Again, the Lord reminded me as I prayed of his nearness and involvement in my life.

Whatever your situation or stage of life, remember that we are too weak and helpless to not pray, and God is too faithful and merciful not to hear our prayer. His word encourages us with a promise, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) So Let Us Be Weak – And Pray!

Information about the Week of Prayer can be found at here.