During my regular prayer times, I pray that the blind see, that the deaf hear and that the crippled walk. If the House Church is truly a New Testament church, such things should happen, because they happened in New Testament times.
Do I earnestly believe that these prayers will be answered? Honestly, I’m not sure. But despite my lack of confidence, I still pray because there’s a possibility – however slim – that my prayers may be answered; Jesus said that faith as small as a mustard seed can move a mountain. I also pray so that my requests won’t not happen because nobody prayed. Also, the Bible seems to say that God will perform great signs and wonders in the end times, and those times may be now.
I pray even when I don’t have strong confidence that they’ll be answered because I do have confidence in the goodness of God. I used to try to find God’s will before I prayed so that I could pray according to God’s will, to ensure that my prayers will definitely be answered. When they weren’t, I got disappointed. I don’t do this anymore. I pray without bothering to figure out whether they’re according to God’s will or not, or whether I think they’ll be answered or not. If they’re in line with God’s will, He will answer them. If they’re not, He won’t. When my prayers aren’t answered I assume that they’re not in His will or that He may have in store something better than what I prayed for. I have confidence in His goodness.
One thing I pray for every morning is my wife’s health.
It’s been 13 years since my wife had surgery and underwent chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. Since then, she’s had hormone treatments to keep the cancer in check. It seems that this is no longer working. Recent tests showed that the cancer cells have spread and that tumors are growing.
She tried an experimental drug but the side effects were intolerable: her body ached all over and her throat hurt so much that she couldn’t speak. So we decided to go back to conventional chemotherapy. The first of six scheduled rounds will be done this Friday. Each session will last 6 hours. Her hair will fall out as it did before.
I had asked the 333 Prayer Partners to pray that her body will develop resistance and immunity to ovarian cancer cells, but that no longer seems to make sense. Instead, I ask that you pray for the tumors to decrease in size and for the cancers cells to disappear.
Some people, especially those who have serious illnesses, may feel that I’m asking for a personal favor in requesting the 333 Prayer Partners to pray for her. But I’m asking them to pray for her because her health is related to the health of our ministry. She needs to be healthy for our church ministry to run smoothly and for the house church ministry to keep going. But I do ask that our 333 Prayer Partners also pray for our sick church members every time they pray for my wife.
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