Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Prayer in Storms
Did all of the prayers sent up cause the major degredation of Hurricane Rita before it made landfall? Scientifically, there hasn't been a good explanation for why the storm didn't do what was expected, weakening, rather than strengthening, impacting lesser populated areas rather than high population cities. I'll choose to believe our petition to God was answered in this way.
Here's another one to pray about. Tropical Storm Tammy has formed off the Florida coast. There is not a reliable prediction for its movement or strength as it is moving parallel to shore like Ophelia did, heading up the east coast. Lets all pray for this storm to weaken and head out to sea.
Many of us are suffering personal storms. The people impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are, as many of us have seen first hand. Also, everyone who was in our team last week that I have talked to since returning is suffering a personal storm about returning to our day to day lives rather than continuing to focus on work in God's kingdom. Even someone I consider my rock of rationality and responsiblilty has felt drawn to seriously consider going "full time" out of this. Finally as we've seen with our new friends, Mr. Alexander and the Robinson family, there were storms before Katrina added her insults.
Paul says, in Ephesians 6:18 at the end of my life verses on the full armor of God, "Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere." (NLT)
It's easy for me to forget this. I felt drawn to remind us all of the power of our prayers and the Holy Spirit in our lives and how much they can impact the lives of others. Please pray now for those of us who are feeling called so strongly to mission work to find an outlet or the peace to be patient for God to reveal the path to us. Or, as frequently happens, to find what He has behind door number 3 that we can't even concieve of. Please pray for the people we've been helping. And please pray for all of God's people to continue to come together through these efforts without avarice to execute His plans here on earth.
John McGuire
Here's another one to pray about. Tropical Storm Tammy has formed off the Florida coast. There is not a reliable prediction for its movement or strength as it is moving parallel to shore like Ophelia did, heading up the east coast. Lets all pray for this storm to weaken and head out to sea.
Many of us are suffering personal storms. The people impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are, as many of us have seen first hand. Also, everyone who was in our team last week that I have talked to since returning is suffering a personal storm about returning to our day to day lives rather than continuing to focus on work in God's kingdom. Even someone I consider my rock of rationality and responsiblilty has felt drawn to seriously consider going "full time" out of this. Finally as we've seen with our new friends, Mr. Alexander and the Robinson family, there were storms before Katrina added her insults.
Paul says, in Ephesians 6:18 at the end of my life verses on the full armor of God, "Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere." (NLT)
It's easy for me to forget this. I felt drawn to remind us all of the power of our prayers and the Holy Spirit in our lives and how much they can impact the lives of others. Please pray now for those of us who are feeling called so strongly to mission work to find an outlet or the peace to be patient for God to reveal the path to us. Or, as frequently happens, to find what He has behind door number 3 that we can't even concieve of. Please pray for the people we've been helping. And please pray for all of God's people to continue to come together through these efforts without avarice to execute His plans here on earth.
John McGuire
# posted by John McGuire @ 10:20 AM 
