Prayer Day, faith & birthday cakes
Vas writes: Today was our Prayer Day. Family homes dedicate a full day to praying once a month. Last night my wife spent 3 hours planning it. She planned two meetings with different ways to praise the Lord, then she compiled prayer requests from around the world and from the individuals in our homes as well as for general home needs. Prayer Days mean a lot to me because it seems the Lord blesses me in a special way when I take time to pray for others. By the same token, it seems that whenever I’m determined to pray for others a bunch of other things will pop up that I need to do, thus making it harder to follow through on taking this prayer time.
I have learned that I need to make praying for others a priority so that it doesn’t get crowded out of my schedule. On days like today when it’s the focus of our whole home it’s easier. I can then use this initial boost each month to motivate me to keep it up on a smaller scale every day.
One of my sons has an ear problem that’s been ongoing for about 4 years now (he’s five years old). We’ve taken him to several doctors and he’s had one operation so far, but although we’ve done everything we could, he still has this problem. Still, it’s because of our belief in God and the ability to hear his voice directly through the gift of prophecy that we have peace that everything will work out for our son.
One thing we are learning right now is not to give up in prayer and to have the kind of trust Job had in the Bible when he said "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:15) The lord has told us he will do the miracle and I know he will or I wouldn’t even be bringing this up. Just the fact that there has been no permanent damage to his ear is a miracle. I tend to be lazy by nature and have a hard time maintaining a persistent habit of praying, but over this four year period it has helped me to change this lazy habit and fight the spiritual battle more aggressively and consistently in prayer. The result I’m sure is one reason God has let this affliction linger on and I don’t think I would have made this progress without this kind of a hardship. I know that as the world grows worse our faith in the miracle working power of Jesus must grow as well and this muscle of faith being exercised will grow.
If anyone reading this has a special prayer request I would be happy to add it to my daily prayer time and if you take prayer time yourself I would be grateful if you would add my son Chad to your prayers.
Drastically changing the subject–it was 10:00 pm this evening when I was drifting off to a deep sleep after reading a story to my three year old daughter Tiffany–completely forgetting that I had promised to help sing “Las Mananitas” (the Mexican happy birthday song) to one of our weekly Bible study students. I woke, groggy, hearing in the distance the words “OK we’re ready” and then it all came back to me. I dashed out of bed, someone handed me a guitar and about 6 of us came into the living room singing and bringing two huge birthday cakes. Our friend and Bible student “Jesus” (common Mexican name) was very touched and said that it was the first time in years he was able to celebrate his birthday because he’s usually so busy with his business. He then told us that even though having a weekly Bible study was out of the question because time didn’t permit it, he did it anyway because he had felt that the different hardships he was facing were to get him closer to God. He added that since he’d faithfully attended the Bible studies his business has been booming. God works in each of our lives in different ways, drawing us closer to Him. Thank God for that!