I find myself once again thrust into the role of intercessor. Twice this week our family has received devastating news about the 7-year-old children of our family friends; one has a diagnosis of leukemia, the other a brain tumor. This comes on the heels of interceding for a friend of mine who is battling pancreatic cancer. I feel unschooled and unprepared for this. How do I beseech the Almighty God on their behalf? How do I pray health and healing and blessings and peace upon them when my heart aches from afar? I feel my faith stretched and tested as I look on and watch these families from a position of perceived helplessness. Does prayer work? Will God hear? And if He does, will He act? There are times in our lives when God calls us to pray while we personally walk through trials and tragedy, and other times when we are called to intercede for those who will walk those paths instead of us, for now. I have been in both places. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was a teenager, I knew I should pray for her health and healing, but it was difficult. My mind was foggy, my thoughts prone to wander to my own fears and insecurities in the midst of the present tragedy. I remember that I had James 5:16 scrawled on a colored 3x5 index card taped to a picture on my nightstand by my bed..."The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." I believed it and trusted it by faith, but yet I found I could scarcely pray. However, according to the Scriptures, even in my weakness, the Holy Spirit interceded for me with groanings too deep for words (Rom 8:26-27). So now I find myself interceding in prayer for others as they face their own tragedies. Like Nehemiah, I stand in the brokenness, amongst the ruined walls of their lives and help them to rebuild--one hand holding a Sword, the Word of God, as I pray through its truths and wield it in the spiritual battle at work behind the physical one (Eph 6:12, 17), while the other hand holds a shovel to help in physical ways...perhaps a hot meal, a handmade note of encouragement, an arm to encircle them in an embrace (Neh 4:17). Not much, I realize, but it is my two fish and five loaves that by God's grace, will be used in mighty ways to nourish their souls and revitalize their spirits so they can hear from God in their difficult journey. And like Nehemiah and the children of Israel, I will steadily work to lift up and build up right where I am placed, and I will trust by faith in God's Word, that YES, God DOES hear, and like always in the Scriptures, when He hears, HE ACTS, and His awesome plans and good purposes WILL be carried out (Job 42:2) and HE will be glorified and people's lives WILL be changed and their faith WILL be strengthened and people WILL be healed! I will trust that God has a plan to prosper His people, and not to harm them, to give them a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11), and that ALL things work together for the good of those who have been called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). And I will trust, together with all the saints, that when my friends walk THROUGH their trials (Psalm 23:4, Isaiah 43:2) and emerge on the other side, many wonderous things will happen. They will now not only have heard of God but will have SEEN GOD (Job 42:5) in a personal and profound way, and when they emerge from the fiery furnace, they will not be singed but will find that ONLY the ropes binding them will have been consumed (Daniel 3:24-25), and they will be freed and made MATURE and COMPLETE, not lacking ANYTHING (James 1:2-3)!! May the Lord never say of us, as He did through his prophet Ezekiel (22:30), "And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land...but I found none." I will pray and I will trust, believing and NOT doubting (James 1:6-8) for we serve a MIGHTY GOD!!
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