A Vital Partnership

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ... And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. I Corinthians 12: 20, 26

If one member of the body suffers... I heard today about a sister in the Lord who has tragically lost her adult son.

My heart breaks for her and her family. And I will pray for her.

But sometimes it doesn't seem like "enough" if we pray for people undergoing suffering. Yet it's the one way we can invisibly support the hurting and grieving members of the Body of Christ.

And in Christ's body, we all need each other.

We should not diminish the fact that we "just pray," as if that is just a small thing. We live in a world where we want to see tangible results. But prayer is accomplished in the spiritual realm that we can only enter by faith.

Did you ever wonder if your prayers were going no higher than the ceiling? If we pray in faith, we take it on faith that somehow our loving Father hears us and will act on our behalf if we ask according to His Word. How is it that an invisible God can hear all the prayers of all His children simultaneously? Again, we take it on God's Word by faith. 

He's God and not like us limited humans.


Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the number of prayer requests that I come across in a typical day. I know that I can't keep track of all of them.

 God still hears even when we pray in a way that covers any believer going through a certain circumstance. For example, I think of all the North Korean prisoners kept in chains and suffering for even having one page of the Bible in their possession. I don't know their names, but God does. Sometimes I pray for all of them as a whole. Yet God knows each one individually and sees each one of their hearts at any given moment.

I know there are times when I can "go and do" something to help. But the problems that the world faces at this time are too many for one person, except the Person of Jesus, to be able to solve.

Brothers and sisters in the Body, no matter where they are, believe in the same Lord as I do, and are part of the same body I am part of. If one of them hurts I am to identify with them.

The enemy does not want us to think that praying does much good, and will throw discouraging thoughts our way. We have to ignore those subtle thoughts, and just keep praying.

Rationalism teaches that prayer is unreasonable since God must know what is required better than the one who prays. Perhaps God did not need to arrange it thus; but it is revealed (John 14: 13, 14) that prayer now has been divinely constituted an office, or trust. When Christ can say of prayer, "Whatsoever ye shall ask...that will I do," He has elevated its importance to a point where, to a large degree, God has conditioned His response on the faithful prayer of the believer... It is probable that we cannot know all that is involved, but we do know that, in  the ministry of prayer, the child of God is brought into vital partnership in the work of God in a manner in which he could not otherwise partake.*

 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Major Bible Themes, page 240. 

We are partners with God through prayer. That is an awesome and privileged opportunity that we only have on this side of eternity. I love what John the Apostle said of our prayers in the book of Revelation:

Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand.        Rev. 8: 4-5

That  is "all the prayers of the saints," you and me included. Now is the time to exercise this wonderful privilege as members of His body, on behalf of those brokenhearted by  suffering in this life.

*emphasis mine

Beyond My Own Understanding

Psalm 76:10
"Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; With the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself."

In vain the other day I "vented" before God but could not stay in that state of mind too long. I hated the feeling of tension welling up inside me and so instead I ended up crying out before Him.. Today, when my heart again was overwhelmed I went to my secret place to cast my burden on Him.

It is there I can go and pour out my heart before God, the living God, the God who hears. People can offer sympathy and prayers but they cannot solve your problems, only God can. He solved our biggest one 2,000 years ago by dying on the cross for each and every human sin. Scripture says He will be praised, so how on earth could my "venting" ever accomplish anything worthwhile? Yet He heard me in my hour of need, and He did not cast me away. Well, I guess if He was there for my biggest problem ever (sin and death), He will be there also for my problems in this transient life.

Lately I have been thinking on what constitutes a blessing by God. People say all the time that they are "blessed" when they have a good job, a nice house, a nest egg for a rainy day, etc. What if you are being persecuted, though, like the believers in North Korea who just received a death sentence? According to the American way of thinking, we might not consider them blessed. But Jesus said in Matthew 5:11- 12:

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

What if it seems like one trial seems to come upon the heels of another? James 1:2-3 told us to:

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."

Somehow that seems to be the last thing I want to do in a trial. I either want to grumble about it, or press the panic button, but certainly not count it all joy. Why it goes it against every single natural thought I have!

These Scriptures prove to me that God does not see trials and adversities the way a man does. I love that about God, that He does not think like us! If He did, we'd all be in trouble!

Isa 55:8-9

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts."

But Scripture tells me I need to takemy every thought captive in I Corinthians 10:4-5:

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ"

These two verses tell me some important truths.

1. We are in a warfare.
2. Our weapons are not carnal. Human help will not help, only God and His Word can help us.
3. These weapons from God want to bring down every thing inside me that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, of what He says is Truth in His Word.
4. It is a battle for every single thought.

Only God can make us victorious in this battle. We cannot fight this on our own. Sometimes, for me, during trials, a thought will come in that will make me start fearing, but I realize that thought needs to go because it is exalting itself against the knowledge of God, of Him promising in His Word that somehow I will be left hanging out to dry, that God will not provide for me. Today, after I prayed, I was tempted to think that I was still the same old "me," and not victorious, but then I started humming some songs of praise to God as I walked along outside and I felt my burden starting to lift.

And then the Spirit brought to mind two beautiful Scriptural promises, something to meditate on in the midst of trial:

II Cor 2 :14 "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place."

and....

Isa 42:3

"A bruised reed He will not break,And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth."

Oh, may He recall more and more of His precious promises to us as we walk through the hills and valleys of life!