India this month has been a challenge. Again on the Race our ministry is not what I expected it to be.
So much of our ministry this month has been working in the slums around Hyderabad. Usually when we visit the slums we do a church service for the people there. I have been so blessed by these services. It is so awesome to get to see the little kids run up to us and want to play, it is awesome to see the devotion and desire of the people there to know God, and it is awesome to come together as a family of Christ and worship our Savior together.
However, the thing that stands out the most from our time in the slums to me is when we go house to house and pray for the people there. Or at the end of a church service when we pray for each person individually.
Prayer here and in the other countries we have been to looks so different from the prayer I was raised with in the United States. We don’t pray like they pray.
I think a lot of times we become apathetic in prayer. And I don’t mean just that we have a list of things that we ask or thank the Lord for right before we go to bed. I mean that we forget what we are doing and what we have the privilege to do. We forget so easily that we get to talk to God. That we literally get to talk to the one who created everything we see and can’t imagine seeing, and that He wants us to talk to Him and He wants to talk back. So our prayers become short or they stop happening. We think about the things we should or could pray for but then we never pray.
When we are hurt or sick or we are asking or striving for something our first response is not to pray. We go to the hospital or we try to work harder to get what we want or need but we don’t pray. Matthew 13:58 says, “And He did not do any miracles there because of their lack of faith.” I think that our greatest and most common prayer should be for the Lord to heal our unbelief. We rob ourselves of so much because we refuse to believe in the power that our God actually has.
One of my dreams is to see someone become miraculously healed for the glory of God. I know that the Lord heals in many different ways and one of those ways is through medicine and doctors. However, I will not allow myself to just apathetically pray for someone because they could find healing at the hospital. The greater healing comes when their hearts are healed.
One of the greatest gifts I have received this month is simply prayer and the opportunity to pray. I have been privilege of being allowed to pray with and over people and families. I now pray in expectation. I pray for my own unbelief to be healed and I ask boldly for the things I know the Lord can do. It is so cool to see peoples brokenness as we come together and they cry throughout the prayer and then the joy and peace on their faces after knowing that they have gone into the presence of the Lord.
We don’t do that enough and honestly I don’t know why. I don’t know why we don’t pray with and for each other more. I don’t know why when we are sick or hurt that we don’t stop and just ask the Lord for healing before we proceed. Its true He might not do it but He totally could and He might if we just asked. Why wouldn’t He? Matthew 7:11 says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” I don’t know why in some churches today we have stopped asking for prayer requests and then taking time to pray for them together. I don’t know why we deny one of our greatest privileges as children of God and don’t talk to our Father.
So we need to pray more. We need to talk to the Lord more. Even if we don’t get what we asked for or if we don’t feel like it matter that we pray why wouldn’t we go into the presence of the Lord and just talk with Him and sit with Him for awhile. We need to pray for each other more. We need to ask each other what we need prayer for and then pray about it. James 1:6-7 says, “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.” We need to go with confidence to the Lord and cast out our unbelief. I think then we might actually see some things happen, and God would be glorified through it.
So pray more. Pray together more. Ask what people need prayer for more. Pray that the Lord heals our unbelief. Pray confidently and without doubt. Take advantage of the fact that you can talk to God and that He listens to you.
My team is finishing up ministry here in India and will go to Cambodia at the beginning of December. Please pray for my team and squad as we are finishing our ministry. Pray the Lord is glorified through the work we did in India. Pray for the people of India, The Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nepal. Pray for the country and people of Cambodia to be open to the message the Lord has for them. Thank you all so much for our love and support.
Glory to God!
