Faithful Friday: Lifesaving Prayer

Turn on the television, social media, or just browse the internet and you quickly get a sense of an urgent need for prayer these days.  Not only on a national scope but locally too.  Aside from the horrific and cowardly acts of terrorism this week, mass casualties from fires, and impending storms, there are needs right here at home.  Perhaps right where you are now.

Sickness, broken families, tragic deaths.  Our county's obituaries were two pages this week and many were of people my age.  People passing before their time.  Shocking and unexpected. 
We are never promised tomorrow - or even the completion of today.

Sadly, Tim and I live in the harsh reality that life is short every single day.  We know.  We feel the still very present pain of a life taken too soon.  We remember the struggle to simply breathe with the knowledge and yet unexplainable news that Austin was gone.

Though it doesn't take the pain of missing him away, what held us from the very beginning was knowing where he was.  Austin asked Jesus into his heart at a very early age.  While I had no doubt of his understanding of salvation, at the tender age of 7, we asked our pastor to visit with him at our home.  His baptism was scheduled that same month and I can vividly picture him before entering the water.  Austin was smiling from the inside out, as if his soul was beaming for all to see.  Proudly wearing an "I love Jesus" t-shirt, he'd chosen himself, the very present love of our Savior and the joy of salvation filled the room.

I am proud of the Good News, because it is the power God uses to save everyone who believes-

Romans 1:16

Knowing Heaven holds my sweet boy is what pushes me through each day.  This world can crumble around me but my foundation is secure in knowing I will join him there - and that my family will as well.  What breaks my heart is thinking of those who won't.

Whether within my friends and family, or a stranger down the road, my heart is broken for the lost of this world.  As a church member shared this week, "when I read those obituaries each Wednesday, I wonder if they were a Christian, and I'm burdened with the guilt I never reached out to them." 

That burden is heavily weighing on me too.  Preparing for our upcoming Revival, I've been in more dedicated and constant prayer for the lost.  For those I know and many I do not.  A group of us prayed, name by name, for the ones nailed to a small cross in our church.  We pray that their hearts be opened, that the hold of the enemy be removed from them, and that they accept and believe.  We pray that the Holy Spirit move and use us and others as vehicles to carry his Word.  We pray that their lives be changed...for eternity.

And I would be honored to pray for you too.  For someone you love.  For you personally.  I welcome you to message me and I will faithfully pray.

In this moment, wherever you are in your walk with the Lord, I pray for you now.  For peace, for strength, for the power of the Holy Spirit to fill you in this place.  I pray that if you do not know Him, that you will open your heart to the Lord now. 

  If you openly say, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from death,

you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

There are not enough words, no expression I can share that explains the joy that comes in knowing Him. 
It is my earnest prayer that if you are reading this, you also know this JOY.



Don't Wait

I was blessed to have a wonderful grandfather in my life, who was not only a role model for me, but a continued source of inspiration and example of faith.  Grandpa Henry was a preacher, and I believe it was because of those many sermons I listened to as a child that I became a Christian at a young age. 

Grandpa never pressured me but I know that it was through him that I found God.  I still remember the day I decided to come forward and the overwhelming joy on his face, as he held out his arms welcoming me in front of the pulpit.  It's very much the same picture I imagine of Jesus, each time a new believer asks him into their heart.

Salvation has been heavy on my heart today, as I've been in prayer for a dear friend who is losing her grandfather.  As heartbreaking as it is to lose a grandparent, she is faced with the devastation of knowing he is not saved.  There are family members and friends in this same shape and I know what a sadness I feel every time I picture Heaven without them there.

What I find tragic though is to think of a life lived without Christ.  I absolutely cannot imagine my life without Him in it.  My faith has carried me through my entire life and has been the only thing to hold me together some days, especially the past few years.  I'm ever-grateful for my Grandpa's hand in leading me to a Christian life as a child - and I can't wait to hug and thank him in Heaven someday.

I know that helping my boys accept Jesus in their hearts were the two proudest and most joyful moments as a mother.  Watching my boys be baptized, and knowing that they fully understood and wanted a life with God, were the two best days of my life.  And this knowledge of where Austin is now brings a continued source of comfort to my grieving heart.

I could never pass up this opportunity to share with you the steps to salvation, should anyone reading this not know.  It's never too late to open your heart, even if you didn't have that opportunity as a child.  Even if you've turned away from it in the past.  Even if you feel that you don't deserve that type of unconditional love and forgiveness.  The wonderful part is that you can find salvation at any moment....but the important part is not to wait until the end.  Don't live another day without God.  There is no comparison to a life without versus a life with Him.

You don't have to say a special prayer.  You don't even need a Bible, if you don't have one.  Just follow these steps.  Admit you've sinned.  Promise to turn away from sin and change.  Believe that Jesus died for you.  And ask Jesus into your heart, to lead and guide you in your life.

Romans 10:13    "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”