I recently asked friends on social media to post questions they have about the eight months I’ve spent on the World Race. I’ll be doing a Q&A blog soon, but one question in particular really got me thinking.
My friend Jeremy asked, “what has been your greatest challenge?”
The short answer: Seeing evident brokenness as well as injustice (political, social, economical, spiritual) and wishing I could do more to help. This question had my heart stirring and I think it deserves more than a short answer. Let me tell you, when names and faces are tied to an injustice, it grips your heart significantly more.
One day in Malawi we were out evangelizing, and spent some time with a young girl about 18 years old. The underlying message we shared with her is how God is our comfort in even the darkest trials. We asked her if she had any prayer requests. “Yes, my grandmother is very sick. Come.” We rounded the corner and there lay her grandmother, next to a mud hut, barely covered by the narrow patch of shade it was providing. She was mere skin and bones. Her hair was gone and every inch of her body was covered in a white grainy film. On top of that, her skin was blistered by the sun. Her family explained to us that she’s been to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do for her. She could no longer swallow anything, but water. She was covered in flies, laying on the ground… dying. I was with my teammate, Matt, and he could sense that he was going to be the one to pray out loud. Is there anything I can do, Father? After Matt’s prayer, I rummaged through my backpack and found a small cross-stitch cross, put it in her hand, and folded her fingers over it. “Remember the promises God has for you,” I whispered gripping her hand. She squeezed my hand, and whispered “please never forget me.”
I couldn’t forget her if I tried.
My heart throbbed as we walked away. Why did God bring us to her? What could we do for her? It seemed ridiculous to walk away.
PRAY.
But God, I want to give her comfort as she dies. I want to offer her real tangible help. I want to change the fact that there was nothing the doctors could do for her.
PRAY.
All I could do was give her a little cross and leave her there to die?
PRAY.
Did I not believe what I preached? Is God our comfort in even the darkest of trials? Do I believe in the power of prayer?
During team time, we reflected on our experience evangelizing that day. We were a team of 6, split into 3 groups of 2. Normally, we’d divide up and go all different directions in the village to make sure we didn’t double up on who we talked to. Come to find out, all three pairs had stumbled upon the dying woman that day. She’d been prayed for 3 times. God must have really wanted us to meet her.
I thought about what He told me as we walked away. PRAY.
I felt too tired to pray. Processing through the brokenness we saw in Malawi was exhausting me- physically, mentally, emotionally. We had a dog that month that had open wounds on her ears and she was always swarmed with flies that were eating away at the wound. Her ears were always soaked with blood. I washed her ears twice a day and as I’d sit next to her afterward and wave off the flies just so she could rest her head for a few moments, I’d cry. If a teammate hurt my feelings, I’d cry. On the van rides home, I’d cry. We got home one day and I stayed outside the house trying to find a place to be by myself. There was no where. I went into the tiny room I shared with the other girls, opened a few letters from home, and cried so hard I couldn’t read the words. I cried myself into a 3 hour nap. I assured my team this wasn’t normal. My teammate who had been with me the whole race mentioned he had only seen me cry once before that in 4 1/2 months time.
At the end of our month in Malawi, my friend Alyx taught on the authority we have in prayer and shed light on why prayer is so crucial with the story of creation.
Let’s go back to the beginning of time… Earth was originally under man’s authority in the garden of Eden. Life was perfect. There was no pain and no unmet need. No brokenness. No injustice. Adam and Eve lived peacefully in fellowship with the Lord and with one another. They were given one rule- do not eat from the tree in the center of the garden. Eve was tempted by Satan and took a bite of the fruit from the forbidden tree. Adam followed suit. In that moment when they chose against God, the lease over the earth was handed to the enemy, who is called ‘the prince of the world.’ God is not the giver of brokenness, hurt, or pain that’s happening on earth. All of that exists because of the fall. However, we reclaim God’s territory and goodness when we surrender control to him. He shows his love for us AND defines love for us when he gives us the choice to choose him. Just like he gave Adam and Eve the choice in the garden. I believe he put the forbidden tree in the center of the garden for a reason. It was a reminder to them of the choice they had every day. It remains a reminder to us that we have the same choice. Opportunities to sin will always be in front of us, just as the tree was in front of them. When we submit our lives to God, we give him control. Galatians 2:20 reads, “I have been crucified with Christ so that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. For this life I now live in the body, I live by FAITH in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Therefore, when we pray, we are re-claiming the ground we stand on as God’s territory, not Satan’s. If the world wasn’t under the lease of the enemy, why would Jesus have to come? He taught us how to live in this brokenness and reclaim it for God’s glory. God sent him because he didn’t want heaven without us. He sent him because he loves us. Jesus lived the most purposeful life calling anyone has ever lived, and even he hid away to pray. The savior of the world relied on the power of prayer and intimacy with the father. He lived a sinless life, yet was crucified for you and me- bearing the weight of every burden, and every sin ever committed by humanity. He died and rose from the grave 3 days later. His earthly body is in heaven so that his glorified body may live in us.
But what is love without choice? A relationship has two sides. Both parties have to choose into the relationship. God is already choosing us. He’s chosen us as his children from the day he formed us in the womb. We get to choose him daily in a covenantal love. The Bible says that Jesus is the true bridegroom and the church is his bride. When we give our lives to Christ, and become one with him, just like a bride and groom become one through the covenant of marriage, the relationship doesn’t stop there. Have you ever heard people say “it’s not the wedding that matters, it’s the marriage?” Well guess what? Marriage takes work. It takes time. It takes intimacy. It takes choosing each other daily even when it’s hard. Your love story with God doesn’t stop with salvation, just like a marriage doesn’t stop at the wedding.
One of our roles in relationship with God is prayer! It’s proclaiming his truth, his goodness, and the hope we have in him over the brokenness we see. It’s also standing firmly in the confidence we have in him, believing that he will answer. This revelation about the importance of prayer had me diving into scripture studying its underlying power. A common theme I found was that we have to stand in our authority and believe that God will show up.
“And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:22-24
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15
In Mark 9:22-25 there’s a young boy possessed by a demon. In desperation, the father approaches Jesus and says, “‘if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.’” The demon fled from the boy.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
In Matthew 9:28-30 there’s 2 blind men asking to be healed. Jesus asks them if they believe he is able to heal them. They say yes and he says, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.”
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
A lot of things we don’t get because we don’t ask. God wants us to need him. He designed us for dependency from the time we were born. He is our father and we are his children- a story that is exemplified for us from the day we were born. We were born in humble position, needing the guidance of our parents, needing the shelter and nourishment they provide. (Side note: Sometimes we ask for things from our parents that we are SURE we need, but they say no. Another part of standing confidently in God’s promises, is trusting him even when the outcome isn’t what we desired. There are times when I pray boldly and confidently and what I pray for doesn’t come to be. In those moments we have to trust that God sees the bigger picture.)
Speak things out in faith. God teaches us that from the beginning. He proclaims “let there be light” and there was light. He created us in His image. Speak your prayers into existence. He tells us to come boldly to the throne room, not timidly, not with hesitance. Boldly.
Write your prayers down. Speak them. Proclaim them. Share them.
”And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:2-3
Can I remind you who you are and whose you are? You’re a mighty warrior in the kingdom of God. Claimed by him, loved by him, and pursued by him. I pray that we never lose sight of that. I pray that head knowledge of His word becomes heart knowledge. I pray that what we proclaim, comes to fruition by the blood of Jesus. I pray we take captive every thought and demolish every stronghold set up against us. I declare the name of JESUS over you and the armor of God upon you. I pray we desire his word and never grow weary in doing good. I pray you know he loves you as you are and that you always come back to the well.
Lastly, to the woman dying in front of me, thank you. Thank you for inspiring me to know the heart of God more. Your suffering was not in vain. Know that I will never forget you.
