Prayer is something I have always wanted to be more ingrained into my daily life. I have always wanted to ‘Pray without ceasing’ but when it comes to stressful situations instead of calling out to God, I tend to forget about Him and attempt to do everything on my own strength.
One night the Pastor called and asked for a late night house visit to pray for a sick friend. I immediately agreed. I know prayer is something I can do and anything helping to meet more believers is exciting for me. We arrive at the house and soon jump into an intense prayer calling out to God for healing. Here we are 3 Americans and 3 Malaysians uniting by crying out to God and lifting up our sister in prayer. We then prayed over a bottle of oil and anointed the sister’s head and at the same time listened to her and her husband confess their sins. We pretty much did everything the Bible says to do in:
James 5: 13-16, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
It really opened my eyes to another aspect of prayer. In Thailand I really gained an appreciation for intercession and making prayer requests known to Him. And my time on the Race since then has been more of that lifestyle. Whether or not I am worshipping alone or with my team, I go in with a mindset of prayer and interceding for whatever or whoever comes to mind. During my time in Malaysia so far—prayer has been more intense and really Spirit filled. I have come to a point of confessing my sins and letting others in my team pray for me so the Lord can heal my heart and my life and make it clean. I’ve learned that without this process the Spirit of the Lord can’t fully work in my life when I am so bogged down with sin and lies of the enemy that come out in my everyday life. Giving myself over and laying myself down at the feet of the cross is exactly what God wants so he can use me to the fullest whether I am at home or on the mission field.
I think prayer and giving everything over to the Lord is probably the biggest lesson I have learned while on the World Race thus far. There are times in my life I wish I would have prayed more– or even prayed at all. But through those experiences I have learned how to rely on the Lord and to come to Him first.
