Saturday, March 22, 2014

Agreeing Together in Prayer

I am a visual learner. I love to read and I learn a lot from what I read, but like most people, I remember what I see explained to me. And I remember one particular lesson I learned about prayer that no amount of reading about it could have taught me.

As a child growing up, our family was the first to arrive at church on Sunday morning. Daddy was the church custodian and he was responsible for unlocking the door, turning on the lights, etc. And he was always faithful to his job. Living in the country, he would leave the front door of the church unlocked from the ending of the morning service until after the evening service. (life was much simpler then!!)

On Sunday evenings, we would get there 45 minutes to an hour before the service began, and often when we came into the church, there would be 2 ladies, dear friends of my Mom's,  kneeling in the altar, praying together. We quietly sat down, not wanting to disturb them, but as soon as we, or anyone else came in, they would get up from the altar, come and talk with us and the others who had come in, and said nothing about what they were praying for.

Sunday evening after Sunday evening I saw these same 2 ladies together in the altar, eyes tightly closed, heads bent slightly toward each other, hands clasped together, tears rolling gently down their cheeks........ and I watched.

One Sunday night after we got home from church, I asked my Mom what those 2 faithful ladies were doing;
I knew, of course, that they were praying, but I was curious about why they were always in the altar, together. And why did they come so early to pray?? And this is what my Mom told me; "Their husbands are not Christians and they are agreeing together in prayer that they will be saved. Each woman is praying for her husband and her friend is agreeing with her for his salvation. Then the other lady prays for her husband and she agrees with her in prayer for his salvation." Such faith. Such trust. Such taking God at His word. Such valuable instruction for a little girl who had such a hunger for all things spiritual.

It took years of faithful praying in that altar and of course privately, but I saw both those men come to faith in Christ. Fast forward many years to a time when David and I had 3 little boys at home and the news came that he would be facing a lay-off at work. I knew what Matthew 18:19 and 20 said; I had read it many times, hi-lited it many years before that, and had witnessed it personally as a child. I knew what the word "agree" meant and even though David and I didn't always "agree" on things back in those early years, I knew that we would agree together about this!!

I got my Bible, read this verse to him and said that I believed the promise in this verse; he said he did, too. We got down on our knees beside our bed and he began to pray for his job and I began agreeing with him in prayer. And ladies, I am not exaggerating one bit; before the day was over he received a call from his work that there had been some changes and he was to report to work that night. Coincidence? I don't think so. God knew we were young and inexperienced in spiritual things and we needed Him to build our faith and did he ever do a great job of building the faith of 2 scared "kids".

Now fast forward many, many years later. We've learned a lot, spiritually, grown a lot, spiritually, (and we have much more to learn and a lot more growing to do) but we've never forgotten the supernatural power of those 2 verses, and we have never forgotten the faithfulness of a loving God. Most nights before we go to sleep we agree in prayer together for our kids, our precious daughters-in-law, our grand kids, each other, our church, our friends, you name it, if it's important to us, we agree together in prayer that God will step into the situation and His precious holy will be done. Are there things we're agreeing together for that we still have not seen fulfilled? Yes, several things. But do we believe God will answer? We sure do! Maybe not exactly like we hope, ask or think, but if not, it will be much better than we hope, ask, or think? (Eph. 3:20)

Dear friend, is your husband a believer? Is your teenager drifting farther and farther away from you and away from God? Are the bills mounting and no job in sight? Is your health a concern to you?

I don't know why I have felt so driven this week to write this post, but I believe God has a purpose for it. And this what I hope you will do:
If you have a need today that is so big it seems impossible for even our Omnipotent God to work out, read Genesis 18:14; "Is anything too hard for God?"

Then

Read Matthew 18:19 and 20. Hi-lite it, tell God you are believing His promise.

Then, ask someone you love and trust to enter into agreement with you for your need, and regularly meet and agree in prayer for the burdens of your heart. Agree together, and don't give up until you see God answer, or see Him move you in another direction.

The 2 ladies in my church knew they were praying in God's will. (1 John 5:14,15)
They took God at His Word. (Matthew 18:19,20)
God proved Himself faithful. (1 Thess. 5:24)

Prayer will change things. I know because it changes me.

Let me hear from you! I love getting your questions. I'll do my best to answer, but if I can't, I'll find someone who will!!

As of this week, we have viewers from 39 countries who regularly visit this blog!! Amen!!

Penny

No comments:

Post a Comment