Friday, July 6, 2018

DEVOTION: WIMPY PRAYERS

by Rusty A. Lang (Pseudonym for Marlene Anne Morphew@AnneMorphew)


 Who me?
Lord, are you saying I pray wimpy prayers?
Shocked, I sat up with a start. It was the early hours of the morning. I had been suffering the disease of Rheumatoid Arthritis for a year. So crippling at times I could not move.  The pain and fatigue it brought with it laying me low of spirit as well.
Fierce Reaction
As my soul rose up with indignation against God's rebuke of wimpy prayers, I heard a distinct crack in my shoulder. God was putting it back into order. Then I knew we were working together against this affliction despite my feeble praying.
Yes, I still felt discomfort but not the level of pain before.  After a while I fell into a peaceful sleep. Waking four hours later, something had shifted within me. 
Ups and Downs
Despite this affliction in 2017, I published two books, travelled to Kenya and Uganda teaching and preaching and lectured in Solomon Islands. With each commitment, local or overseas, the Lord rose me up. Then I was laid low again. My energy level disappointing. My motivation ran its own hilly course. Medication helped to some degree but my hair fell out in handfuls as a result.
Assertive prayers
Towards the end of the year, I kept reflecting on the powerful prayers of the Solomon Islander bible college students for their Island people (see photo below).  They demonstrated their knowledge of the power of God to hear assertive prayers. I had gone to teach the truth of God’s Word but come away with the knowledge they believed God heard their bold prayers to heal their nation and bring transformation.
                                                        
            
And God reminded me of Jabez’s prayer.
1 Chronicles 4:10, ‘ Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ”Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm, that it may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested.’
I repented of wimpy prayers and asking God to do what he had already made available to me - his power to heal, to rise up and overcome this physical hurdle.    
Has the stiffness all gone and pain disappeared? No, but I am different. The Holy Spirit within is moving and working, bringing joints and marrow back into order. My gift of faith has risen up once again. Bold prayers are producing personal transformation.

False humility
I had let my confidence slip. I became my own worst enemy by wrong thinking - this is my lot - this is my thorn in the flesh. False humility believed the lies. 

Living the Truth
In Matthew 6 Jesus told his disciples to pray for his kingdom to come. In Exodus 33:18, Moses asked God to show him his glory. Paul was bold enough to ask for the greatness of God’s power in Ephesians 1:19. Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to ask big prayers in confidence, not demanding but in faith. These examples leave no room for wimpy prayers.
 





Warrior Bride
I believed God could heal. I had already experienced this emotionally. I believed everything I wrote in a chapter in my book, Warrior Bride: Building Women of Strength about healing. But it was not until I had to live it myself that faith rose to bring me onto a level where I became a Warrior Bride myself concerning physical healing. 
What is holding you back? Are you praying wimpy prayers out of false humility?  In what area of your life have you let your confidence in God slip?

About Rusty A. Lang

 Marlene Anne Morphew/Rusty A. Lang – healed from childhood abuse, schooled in brokenness, writing is in her DNA. Discover her testimony in her autobiography, Good Things Take Time: Metamorphosis of a Damaged Soul. Explore her other non-fiction publications on her website rustyalang.com. Her international ministry takes her away from her writing desk throughout the year but her heart home is still Australia with her husband. See Facebook.  

2 comments:

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