Prayer Request
The last days of the semester and the prospect of upcoming finals week are kicking my behind. Oh how I want to be home, in my room, under the covers, watching The OC for days on end...
3 classes, 2 exams, 1 paper, 1 project to go. I'll try not to curl up in the fetal position anywhere on campus.
This Christmas break better be so amazing, because I'm going to need a lot of amazingness to get the tension out of my shoulders that has been stuck there permanently since August.
So David and Larry are going to Karachaevsk in January to facilitate some conflict resolution and leadership training. Do you realize how difficult it is going to be for me to NOT pull a Harriet the Spy mission and get on that plane?? I guess the hiccup would come later, when trying to get past the impenetrable Russian immigration lines without being seen...I'm trying to think like Harriet and find a way around that.
Because I really want to see my families. I keep having dreams that I'm with them, but it's like there are rocks in my mouth because I can't get out hardly anything in Russian. But they can speak just fine, which means I must still have SOME kind of Russian understanding still in my brain somewhere, right? (We'll see in the Spring when I take a Belmont Russian class)
They need prayer, though, which is the main reason for this post. I rarely hear from anyone, but when I do, it's always full of "Продолжай молиться о нас" -- Continue to pray for us. I haven't been doing a very good job lately of getting on my knees for them, or for anything really. I haven't been doing a good job of getting in the Word (except when it's for classes). I am reminded every time I get an email from Nadya or Din that praying is the MOST IMPORTANT thing we can do for them from across the planet. Prayer is real and powerful, and I believe it can change things for them. I want to be a more faithful prayer warrior. I want to allow God to answer my prayers by actually praying them! I don't think I realize how important this really is.
Will you join me in asking the Father for their church to be changed? Pray for humility, love, respect. Pray that they will choose to love each other instead of protecting themselves. Pray that their love for Christ will eclipse their fears and animosities, and force them to overflow with grace toward each other. Pray that Satan will not have a foothold in their hearts and homes. Pray for the orphans in the state orphanage - their health, their hearts, their friendships, their relationships with God. Praise God for what he has done, is doing, and will do in their town. Praise Him in advance for what will happen when David and Larry arrive in January.
Sometimes when I pray for people I really care about, I ask God to protect them with the same protection He extends toward me. I ask as His daughter, as a princess, for Him to give that same love He has given me to them. Like I have access to that Kingdom power and want to give some of it to those who don't (or don't know they do). To me, it feels like I'm just the straws on a fiber optic light, allowing God's presence to extend to even those who don't know Him. I don't know if that's theologically sound (probably not...), or if God likes it when I ask that, but I do it out of desperation. Like, "God, look how much they need you. Give some of the grace you've reserved for me to them." There are glimpses of this in how Paul prayed, even in how Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer:
"I pray for them...I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." - John 17:9-11
Lord, give them what you have given me. I don't have anything else to offer them, except prayer. I can't be with them, but I put them in your hands.
1 John 2 says we have an advocate in Jesus. A παράκλητοs, which means "one called to aid, helping" or "legal assistant, advocate" or "one of who speaks on behalf: mediator, intercessor" or "comforter, helper." I think it's interesting that the writer of John calls Jesus our παράκλητοs because usually we think of the Holy Spirit being the Paraclete. Certainly the Spirit is as well. But when Jesus was here, and when he died for us and ascended to the right hand of God, he was being a παράκλητοs. He was being our advocate, our intercessor, our one called to aid. That's why he prayed prayers like John 17. And that's why I think it's good for us to pray prayers of "speaking on behalf" like a fiber optic light, because Jesus said things like this telling us to copy him:
"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." - John 13:14-17
I hope I'm making sense here. My Johannine class and Greek class and other random thoughts get pretty jumbled together, and out comes this sort of logic ;)
But my point is that I have some sweet friends who could use your interceding for them. Let's storm heaven with prayers for these beautiful people!
3 classes, 2 exams, 1 paper, 1 project to go. I'll try not to curl up in the fetal position anywhere on campus.
This Christmas break better be so amazing, because I'm going to need a lot of amazingness to get the tension out of my shoulders that has been stuck there permanently since August.
So David and Larry are going to Karachaevsk in January to facilitate some conflict resolution and leadership training. Do you realize how difficult it is going to be for me to NOT pull a Harriet the Spy mission and get on that plane?? I guess the hiccup would come later, when trying to get past the impenetrable Russian immigration lines without being seen...I'm trying to think like Harriet and find a way around that.
Because I really want to see my families. I keep having dreams that I'm with them, but it's like there are rocks in my mouth because I can't get out hardly anything in Russian. But they can speak just fine, which means I must still have SOME kind of Russian understanding still in my brain somewhere, right? (We'll see in the Spring when I take a Belmont Russian class)
They need prayer, though, which is the main reason for this post. I rarely hear from anyone, but when I do, it's always full of "Продолжай молиться о нас" -- Continue to pray for us. I haven't been doing a very good job lately of getting on my knees for them, or for anything really. I haven't been doing a good job of getting in the Word (except when it's for classes). I am reminded every time I get an email from Nadya or Din that praying is the MOST IMPORTANT thing we can do for them from across the planet. Prayer is real and powerful, and I believe it can change things for them. I want to be a more faithful prayer warrior. I want to allow God to answer my prayers by actually praying them! I don't think I realize how important this really is.
Will you join me in asking the Father for their church to be changed? Pray for humility, love, respect. Pray that they will choose to love each other instead of protecting themselves. Pray that their love for Christ will eclipse their fears and animosities, and force them to overflow with grace toward each other. Pray that Satan will not have a foothold in their hearts and homes. Pray for the orphans in the state orphanage - their health, their hearts, their friendships, their relationships with God. Praise God for what he has done, is doing, and will do in their town. Praise Him in advance for what will happen when David and Larry arrive in January.
Sometimes when I pray for people I really care about, I ask God to protect them with the same protection He extends toward me. I ask as His daughter, as a princess, for Him to give that same love He has given me to them. Like I have access to that Kingdom power and want to give some of it to those who don't (or don't know they do). To me, it feels like I'm just the straws on a fiber optic light, allowing God's presence to extend to even those who don't know Him. I don't know if that's theologically sound (probably not...), or if God likes it when I ask that, but I do it out of desperation. Like, "God, look how much they need you. Give some of the grace you've reserved for me to them." There are glimpses of this in how Paul prayed, even in how Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer:
"I pray for them...I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." - John 17:9-11
Lord, give them what you have given me. I don't have anything else to offer them, except prayer. I can't be with them, but I put them in your hands.
1 John 2 says we have an advocate in Jesus. A παράκλητοs, which means "one called to aid, helping" or "legal assistant, advocate" or "one of who speaks on behalf: mediator, intercessor" or "comforter, helper." I think it's interesting that the writer of John calls Jesus our παράκλητοs because usually we think of the Holy Spirit being the Paraclete. Certainly the Spirit is as well. But when Jesus was here, and when he died for us and ascended to the right hand of God, he was being a παράκλητοs. He was being our advocate, our intercessor, our one called to aid. That's why he prayed prayers like John 17. And that's why I think it's good for us to pray prayers of "speaking on behalf" like a fiber optic light, because Jesus said things like this telling us to copy him:
"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." - John 13:14-17
I hope I'm making sense here. My Johannine class and Greek class and other random thoughts get pretty jumbled together, and out comes this sort of logic ;)
But my point is that I have some sweet friends who could use your interceding for them. Let's storm heaven with prayers for these beautiful people!
very true
ReplyDeleteaaron