Matthew 18:20 (KJV)
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
This scripture is especially dear to me as it is the basis of my Prayer Partnership.
Five years ago during the peak of the stress of my failing marriage, I would call my friend to cry and vent. She was always there for me...literally. She would always listen and tried to encourage me. One night, she said, "Let's pray about this". God used her prayers to calm my soul and strengthen me.
I came across the book "The Power of a Praying Wife"....and instead of seeing changes in my husband--since I was praying for HIM, I began to see many changes in myself. I felt certain this experience of praying Scripture was the opening to the change I had been hopelessly longing for. After sharing this book with my friend, we both began praying together more regularly.
It was amazing to see Matthew 18:20 being played out in front of our eyes! God was there. My friend and I were connected on a soul level. We began to celebrate the changes we saw God doing in each of lives as individuals. Which also led to improvement in our surrounding environments (or rather, improved our perspective on our lives).
Over the years, no matter where we have lived, we have always nurtured our prayer partnership. Sometimes we have prayed everyday, once a week, once a month, and sometimes it may be a bit longer. But God has blessed our friendship through this partnership, that sometimes there is a day or situation that will call us back to that place of "gathering together".
Remember, even God knows there is strength in numbers. And He wants to be in the middle!
3 comments:
God is the concrete that holds us together. Thank you so much for your prayer partnership. I am humbly reminded of where we have come from.
***And this WASN'T what you were going to blog about!:)*** But it's something I needed to be reminded of, so thank you. Prayer does make a difference.
BTW, for those of you still reading, I can joke with the best about the Power of a Praying books, but even dash defends the Power of a Praying Wife book. It served a purpose in our marriage and we both have grown spiritually because of the prayers prayed from it. I can not speak for the other books because I have not gotten into them, but I can say that there is Power in praying through scriptures and we benefited from this book.
I did that book and could probably stand to revisit it. I have a card from a weekend retreat that has some scriptures to pray in regard to the way you think about yourself and others that has really been helping me lately. Isn't it true that prayer is about changing our perspective so many times not about changing the events?!
I have even found that taking those prayers from the "Wife" book, and changing them for myself has impacted me more than the "Woman" book. (And yes I can agree that there are so many "Praying..." books out there, that it can be joked about too.)
I would say what I really learned from the book was: 1) To pray Scripture. Even Christ prayed Scripture in the Garden. 2) To pray specifically.
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