The prayer of the Mary’s

A beautiful lesson on the prayer of the Mary’s last PWOC touched my heart in a deep way.

Many times in my life, my prayer has been for God to show up and prove to me once again who He is in my life…many times, it has been to help me overcome my unbelief.  This is one of the prayers that Jeni taught us to pray last PWOC.

Another prayer was a prayer for salvation–to believe who Jesus really is.  This is a powerful and most wonderful prayer!

The last prayer spoke powerfully to me that day…the prayer of the Mary’s.  As God has helped me believe in His plans for us….He has moved me on to be able to present to others what He wants me to share.  He gave me permission to share and “encourage others in faith, so their hearts do not become hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” I feel like the Mary’s who came back from the tomb…after Christ had been resurrected and appeared to them first.  They probably were little chatterboxes, overcome with joy and excitement and great FAITH!!!  But, the disciples, who had been with Jesus, walked with Him, and heard Him many times foretell what would happen to Him…did not believe the Mary’s.

I felt like this the other day when I told Brian and others what God had put on my heart to share.  First, He had to get me to the place where I heard Him clearly and believed.  I was SO excited having arrived at that place!  I was very much a chatterbox to Brian!  He was taken aback, and thankfully, told me He would pray about it…  I’ve gotten a different sort of responses, but I know that God will prove Himself true and mighty and powerful to those that believe, but struggle to believe God for everything.  His love, grace, and unending pursuit of us takes us to greater and greater places of faith in Him.

It is risky to have great faith.  What if we heard God wrong?  What if He doesn’t come through as He said He would?  I’ve been here before with Hannah.  The Lord told me she would be a term baby after having Lewis 7 weeks early.  My doctor told me the pregnancy was “no good.”  A friend told me, “better luck next time.”  I stood on God’s promise to me…despite bleeding until 16 weeks, despite a uterine band that threatened her development…despite everything.  I went back often to the times He had spoken to me, encouraged me, and comforted me.  And I am back in that place once again.  He has spoken.  And I am choosing to believe.

Mark 11:22-25: This is the mountain moving faith that God began to show me in Korea with Hannah.  He brought this verse back to me this morning, beckoning me to continue to have faith.  A woman just the other week gave me a book on having faith without even knowing anything about our situation.  This week in our Holiness class, we are studying the Hebrews passage of the relationship between faith and obedience.  I read through all the examples of people who had great faith.  The one that was the most striking to me was Noah.  He labored for 150 years building an ark, telling everyone around him a flood was coming and to turn from their sin.  No one believed him.  They mocked him.  But, time proved him right.  Time does prove God’s revelations right.

The prayer of the Mary’s is to share God miracles with faith, love, and grace…and to continue to share and believe come what may.  He is telling me today, “I will not fail you. Trust me.  Believe.”

It is a choice we make to believe.  We may seem crazy to everyone else, but when God speaks, and we confirm with Him what He has spoken to us, we MUST go forward in faith!