"Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."
(James 5: 14-16)
Tonight the pastors and elders of our church came over. Piper was anointed with oil and then the group of men laid hands on her little self and prayed.
Big prayers for miracles.
Big prayers for our marriage and family.
Big prayers for peace and faithfulness.
It was such an immeasurable blessing to us.
Chad and I are still not accustomed to the overflow of love that this church has bestowed upon us. Not in any way to pat them on the back but rather to thank the throes of men and women who see loving as a reality and not just a sermon.
Within this group of eight men standing in my living room, two of them are childhood cancer survivors and one of them is currently walking through his sons lymphoma diagnosis. The men that have been through this, get it. The rest of them are still faithfully bringing our family's name to their mouths each day in hopes that a cure will happen.
I don't know how prayer works. I do know that God is not a genie and that He will not necessarily cure my Piper if I only believe it enough. But He is capable and He will cure my Piper if that is His plan...my only job is to trust that the amount of love that He has for her vastly outweighs my own. Gods goodness is not reliant on how much I like or trust His plan.
And I do trust that because when life becomes so very hard and its uncontrollable and uncomfortable and unexplainable what else do I have? If I loose the trust in God that I have then I am left with no fathomable hope, but still all the uncontrollable,uncomfortable and the unexplainable that so can rattle someone.
No thanks. I cling to hope. And I thank God for good men who step up and put to action what is preached on Sunday morning...it soothed our souls tonight.
Thank you for sharing this Susanna. I struggle with the same thoughts... not knowing exactly how prayer works... knowing that the Lord might choose to answer "no" even when we pray fervently and with pure faith... but always, always we can cling to hope. We have to, no matter our circumstances, otherwise none of us would have the strength to go on. Praying for you... for the peace that passes understanding... because truly it makes no sense for you to have peace right now. But I completely believe you can, and will have peace.
ReplyDeleteWonderful...Absolutely wonderful. You all are such a picture of faith in action that i am blown away. to see you and Chad, day by day, continuing forward one step at a time brings a sense of awe to those of us watching and praying. we love you , we always will. thank you
ReplyDeleteI can also tell you that two wed night--I believe that it was two- we had a pastor in our Singles Again Bible study that truly believes in the power of prayer and healing. He is from Dominica and fervently prayed for the healing of Piper. I was so touched that he prayed so effectually and so fervently for a baby he didn't even know!!! Love your family muches!!!
ReplyDelete