I gathered together today with a group of pastors where I heard the most amazing Jesus story. One of the guys shared about how his wife has been going through stomach issues for over five months. It took the doctors months to discover what was wrong and then it’s taken additional time for the treatment to reverse the damage cause by the little bugger that caused the problem.
During this time, she lost pounds she couldn’t afford to lose. Worst of all, she wasn’t able to leave the house, which meant attending service or having guests over was out of the question. After finally getting healthy enough to attend service, she told how she held onto her faith in a good God even when He wasn’t answering her prayers. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place! People could relate big time to her situation.
Lives were immensely touched that day. Then I remembered what I wrote yesterday, “Let the Spirit, using your current challenges, enlarge your view of your God. As you do, you’ll experience the kind of victory that others will see and ask about.”
Then I thought, Should I have been praying for God to heal her when in fact it was through her painful struggle that not only did her view of God enlarge, but so did those in her church family? I know it sounds harsh, but doesn’t it often take struggles coming from this world to get us to begin to think rightly about our God? (See Hebrews 12:1-11.)
I’m not saying to ask the Lord to pile on the pain! I guess what I’m suggesting, though, is that we stop and ask, “Lord, how do You want me to enter the battle for this for request?” Might He say, “Pray for them to have the strength to endure it so their view of Me will enlarge”? Would you be willing to enter the battle in this way, even though it goes against every fiber in your soul? Prayer is indeed not for wimps.
S“E”t Free Nowww