Lifted By Prayer

I got the call on a Thursday morning. My husband was far from home and he sounded discouraged, his voice strained.

As my two small children fluttered around me like so many mismatched butterflies unaware of the danger of a coming storm, I blindly sat down on my mother’s couch, gripped my phone tightly and held on.

Something had happened, a work situation beyond our control.

And although I knew things could and would work out, I felt crushed in the talons of fear’s unrelenting grip.

When the call ended, I looked up to see the faces of my sister and mom staring back at me gravely, sympathetically.

We prayed and we talked and I smiled, but inside, I felt sick with the worry and the waiting.

It was on the way home that I gave in. Feeling broken-hearted and brave, I posted a message on our church ladies’ Facebook page, typing through my tears:

“Hi ladies, my family could really use your prayers today. I can’t say more details, but would covet prayers for peace and wisdom, especially in the next 24 hours. Thank you!”

And then the miraculous happened. Small expressions of a big love – the love of a Father — visible in the hands and feet of women who were willing to come alongside me in my distress. As my email began to ding and texts and messages arrived throughout the day – more than fifty! – each one was a prayer, an expression of love and concern. Of support.

And each time I heard one arrive, I felt the cloud of misery dissipating a little bit more.

I felt the hard-won peace I had pleaded for edging out circumstances that, on their own and within my own power, felt overwhelming and insurmountable.

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.” 1 Corinthians 12:25-26 (MSG)

God designed us to live in community. What small expressions of love can you use to communicate God’s love and care for his children, in every circumstance?