The Importance of Prayer
I have been writing updates to my prayer partners for several years now. All through my journey with Cancer and with Floyd's illness. I started thinking this week about why I'm writing these updates, and I realized it's because I really want and need these prayers! These prayers have "carried" me through so many things and I don't know if I'd have made it without them.
This started me thinking about prayer! I read an anecdote that I wanted to share with you. "In Alexander Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Ivan endures all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp. One day he is praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner notices him and says with ridicule, "Prayers won't help you get out of here any faster." Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, "I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God." " - Vernon C. Grounds
We don't always get the exact thing we prayed for - but prayer helps us get through the situation we find ourselves in. Prayer isn't a button we push to get God to do what we want. It's asking God to help us do and be what He wants in the circumstances we're living with.
Floyd wasn't healed even though thousands were praying for him. But God helped him (and me) get through the 5 1/2 years of his illness. I've not been healed of cancer, but God has helped me through the 8 surgeries and 4 types of chemo treatments. God has been so good and faithful. Prayers have been answered because God helped us make it through all that! I thank the Lord all the time for answered prayer!!
"Lord, teach us to pray." Luke 11:1
"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Psalm 33:20-22
"Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16
"The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:26,27
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstance; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Colossians 4:2
"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." Jeremiah 29:12
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12
I think that last verse sums up the past 11 years of my life! "Prayer is not a way to get what we want but the way to become what God wants." - Anon. In all these years God has been working in my life......and, yes, helping me to be more like what He wants. I'm still learning and growing. He's not done with me yet!
About the Author: Sally McClung is a member of the All Nations International Leadership Team and is co-founder of All Nations. Her husband, Floyd McClung, was a world-renown missions leader. Floyd went to be with Jesus in 2021. He is the author of 16 books, including the best-selling books, “The Father Heart of God” and “Living on the Devil’s Doorstep.”
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