Power of Prayer

Welcome back to StrodeDad! Thank you for taking the time to come back each week and read what I have to write. And if you are new, thank you for joining all the other readers on this journey. Also, I want to make a note to say please feel free to join the site. If you subscribe, I can email you notifications weekly when I post my next entry. So whether you are viewing from your phone or your computer please subscribe to the site. With that being said, let's get into it.

I've decided that I would like to open up this blog each week with a prayer. This is more for my benefit than it is for my readers but I want to show reverence to God for allowing me the time, energy, and wisdom to write what follows.

"Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you today to give thanks. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share my thoughts, feelings, and interpretations of my situation and your word. Please grant me the wisdom to know what to share, when to share it, and guide my hand as I type these words. Please allow my readers to connect, not just with my situation but with you Lord. Let them find in my writing your will and your grace. Connect them with your word and your will and let them apply it to their own situations for you are in all things my God. I love you and thank you for this opportunity. In Jesus' name...Amen"

So last week I wrote about how God wants me to show patience in all things and let Him do His will. As I re-read that post it really seemed to hit home. God wanted me to be patient, he wanted me to be patient with Adeline's scans. God wanted me to be patient and wait for Him to tell me if I should or when I should change my college major to biblical studies. He wants me to be patient and wait to see how I can help my community and help at my church.

Boy, I tell you I feel like a race dog, you know one of those greyhounds that run around the track so fast that it makes your head spin.

This image was pulled from https://faunalytics.org/the-life-of-a-racing-greyhound/

Yup, that's the kind I'm talking about. Moving so fast that their feet sometimes come off the ground all four at the same time.

But if you are looking at the gates where they start you are seeing them lunging forward, dancing in place, shaking with anticipation to get started and run. That's how I feel when it comes to God. I'm itching to get going and he is saying, "hold on my son, just wait for me."

But God says wait, so that is what I am going to do and that is what I did. With Adeline's scans I was patient, I didn't flinch when they called with the results. I didn't stress all day long after her scan was done. Instead, I prayed that morning and said, "God I am giving this to you. It has been weighing on me but I know that no matter the outcome it is your will and so in that knowledge, I am placing this weight at your feet." And in that exact moment, the weight that had been on my heart lifted, and my shoulders physically felt lighter.

Later that day when the doctor called she said, "Her scans came back clean. The lymph node that was enlarged doesn't seem to be there anymore. No other masses are seen, everything looks really good."

This is such fantastic news and I just had to share it.

I have one more thing that I want to discuss before I get to the meat and potatoes of this week's entry. This week before I really start I wanted to dote on my wife for a minute.

Since all of this journey started, since Adeline was diagnosed, I've mentioned that Erika and I have been pulled to God. I've briefly described my relationship with God and how back and forth it has been over the years but I would say overall I had some understanding of the Bible and Jesus. Not to say that Erika didn't but I would say while I see my own faith growing it is a dim light in the darkness of the world compared to the love and faith that Erika has found. Watching her and watching her faith and love for Jesus Christ grow is so awe-inspiring. If you've ever seen something truly miraculous happen and been so inspired in knowing that it is God's love that caused it to happen. When I see Erika opening up to worship Him and praying or reading her bible that is what I see. I see such awe-inspiring love and faith emanating from her that I know God has worked wonders in my life. It reminds me that I am lucky to get to share that journey with her. I am lucky that God is granting me the chance to see him working through her and for her.

Now to the meat and potatoes of the post. This week I want to talk about the power of prayer.

How many of you pray? Do you pray every day? Do you pray once a week at church? Do you pray only when times are tough and you just have no other idea what to do to escape your situation?

I am guilty of it. I used to only pray when something in life seemed worth praying for. I only prayed when I felt I had nowhere else to turn and usually it was me just complaining to God about what was wrong with my life. Look let's all be honest with ourselves, we have all been there at one point and time and that's ok. It's not where we start but where we end.

But I pose the question to you, have you ever stopped to consider the power of prayer? Have you ever stopped and thought, wow God really answered my prayers?

I'm sure that the answer is very mixed. So this week I took a lot of time to think about what to write about next. I kept getting pulled back to writing about prayer. I know that since all of this started I've been praying a lot. Let's just say that I have been praying a heck of a lot more than I used to. So knowing that I wanted to write about prayer and feeling that is where God was telling me to go with this I began to read about prayer.

Now when I say read about prayer, I have been tearing apart the scripture for anything related to prayer. I google searched but we all know how that goes, what is actually reliable on google? Then I took the approach of asking my Pastor if he had any resources he'd be willing to share with me and he gave me two books. Both books have been extremely helpful and eye-opening for me. One is called Extreme Prayer by Greg Pruett and the other is called Too Busy NOT to Pray by Bill Hybels.

As you can see from the blue tabs I've been marking a lot of notes.

Now upfront I will quote these books but "Too Busy NOT to Pray" by Bill Hybels has a lot of great content; however, the author is no longer in ministry due to some negative choices he made. I felt as I read it though that the content still made sense and even though he didn't choose to "practice as he preached" the information was still relevant to what I wanted to talk about.

Now you may be saying, "now StrodeDad, we don't come here just to learn about God what does this have to do with your daughter's battle with cancer?" Prayer has so much to do with our daughter's battle with cancer. In our eyes, God has answered our prayers in so many different ways when it comes to her cancer battle. It may not have been the way we really wanted to be answered but he still answered them. And just for clarification, he has not answered as many prayers as he has answered. God does not answer every prayer, the idea that he answers some but not all prayers is a hard one to swallow for anyone even the most devout.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

I am by no means a pastor, minister, preacher, elder, or any of the above. I do not have any special knowledge of God that others do not. I have not been trained to teach anything from the bible, though I am going to college to learn. I am not ordained in any way. So please take what I write here as a personal collection of thoughts, opinions, and beliefs rooted in scripture and research. If you find something that is inaccurate or something you disagree with, feel free to comment, I'm open to discussion and definitely open to learning more.

With that out of the way, I will continue. I want to talk about how powerful prayer really is. A lot of people go about prayer as just something that they say or something that they do on the weekend when they go to church. But there is a lot more to prayer than meets the eye. There are so many benefits to prayer, probably more than I could list.

In the bible over and over Jesus tells us that he wants us to pray and that when we do whatever we ask of him will be ours. Give us examples you say, well ok.

1 John 5:15 - And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

2 Chronicles 7:14 - if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Jeremiah 29:12 - then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

Mark 11:24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Luke 11:9 - And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

These are just a few examples and yes I know I included some from the old testament but it is still the word of God and holds just as true as the verses from the new testament. Over and over in the bible, we are told to pray, ask and we shall receive. Are we receiving when we pray? I know that I am.

When Adeline was first diagnosed and the Monday before she went into surgery to have the tumor removed we went to see Erika's uncle. I leave his name out intentionally because I never thought to ask him directly for his permission. However, we went to Erika's uncle and he and his wife graciously accepted us into their home. We went there for a blessing for Erika's uncle was a devout man, rooted in the belief in God. He had performed other blessings on family in the past and they had all seen the results of such a blessing. And to be clear, by blessing I really just mean praying over Adeline.

Anyways as we sat down and I was holding her in my lap, he placed his hand on her and then held hands with Erika, Erika placed her hand on my right shoulder and he began to pray. At that moment, and I will never forget it, but at that moment I felt another hand placed on my left shoulder and my entire body relaxed and I kind of got goosebumps all over so to speak.

Now disbelievers will say oh you just imagined it. But I tell you today that with all my heart I believe that as he prayed I felt the holy spirit, I felt Christ placing his hand on my shoulder and it gave me the hope to know that it was all going to be ok. I retell this incident because it is the prayer that allowed the holy spirit to fill that room.

Another great example I would love to share is this. We were leading into getting Adeline's scan last week. We went to church for our MidWeek bible study and after it was over we asked a friend to pray with us afterward for her scan to come back clear. So our friend not only agreed but also asked another member of the church and our pastor to pray with us. So Adeline is sitting on the pew and we explain why and what we are praying over her for and asked her if it's ok. She agreed so I grabbed hold of her because it makes me feel better to place a hand on her when praying over her.

So here I am kneeling in front holding on to Adeline's ankles, then Erika is to my left, pastor to the right, our friend next to him, and the other member of our church, whom I'd also call a friend, behind and to the left of Adeline. So the other member of our church began to pray and as I listened I also began to pray and in that very moment that we all started to pray over her a feeling so powerful came through me that I cannot explain to be anything else but the holy spirit once again. It felt like a rush of wind forcing itself into and through me. It made my whole body tingle and spread so powerfully through me that again I knew the holy spirit was in the room with us as we prayed for her. God is so good and powerful and as I type this story because I haven't told anyone except Erika this before, I just want to thank Him for being there for us and with us.

Those are just two examples of when I have felt the power of prayer. Now a non-believer might say well did he answer your prayers, nope because she still had cancer. I would say to that person, God doesn't answer every prayer but he did answer our prayers. He didn't fully heal Adeline on the spot at the beginning of this journey. But what he did do is watch over her during her surgery, given her the strength to get through radiation and chemotherapy, and strength afterwards. Let me tell you as I sit and watch her jumping and doing karate in the living room only an hour after she's received her chemotherapy that for us that is God giving her strength and resilience.

The surgeon told us prior to surgery he was concerned for several reasons. One is that the tumor was so large that he didn't really have an angle to come in at on her left side. The tumor had started to attach to one of the major artery lines and he was worried that he wouldn't be able to get it out without seeing damage to those lines. The last thing he was worried about was that when he takes these tumors out they often just fall apart in his hands which would have automatically put her at stage 3 without even testing the surrounding lymph nodes.

But God answered our prayers in a way that allowed the surgeon to successfully remove the tumor with no damage to the artery lines and without it falling apart. He said, "The surgery went better than I could have expected." If that is not God answering our prayers in his own way boy I just don't know what is. The same happened in recovery. I quote one of the nurses. "If this isn't the best recovery after surgery I have ever seen it is the second best. It's amazing how great she is doing." I believe God works in that way. Sometimes he out right heals and other times he just puts the right people in the path to do is his will. Which is so hard to comprehend because none of us can understand God's plan so when he chooses not to heal we question why because we can't fathom not having that person around. But in all things God is with us and if we lose a loved one it is because they are joining Christ in eternity where they are fully healed.

Both Greg Pruett (Extreme Prayer author) and Bill Hybels (Too Busy Not to Pray author) mention the power of prayer. Greg Pruett tells says that "Effective prayer starts from a humble position of crying out to Jesus." Isn't that the truth of it? When you are new to faith, maybe even before you really start to come to Jesus where do you start? We started by crying out to him asking him to heal Adeline. Erika and I cried out to him, pleading with him to heal her. Those prayers don't always get answered and they don't always get answered in the way we want. So in that way prayer is powerful.

Another thing that prayer does though is shifts your mindset. When you start praying to God your mind starts to shift in the way you view things. You start to see how God is working in your life and not just in your life but in the lives of those around you. When you pray regularly you start to see God's splendor more and more which changes your view of the world. You start to see that God is truly in all things and you start to see the good in the world. Isn't that power, doesn't that make prayer powerful?

Prayer is also a way to speak to Jesus that brings you closer to him. When you pray you are speaking to him. When you pray you are not just asking for things but worshipping him and thanking him for his love.

"And he said to them, When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation." (Luke 11:2-4)

Jesus is teaching us how to pray. When you pray you should be talking directly to him and revering him. You should be asking for your sins to be forgiven. Both Greg Pruett and Bill Hybels agree that we aren't just saying a blanket statement when asking for forgiveness but being honest with him and saying the sins that we are asking to be forgiven for. But as we do all these things what we are doing is communicating with Jesus, growing our relationship with him, and abiding in him. Does that not make prayer powerful?

One of the things that I would say that prayer does which makes it very powerful is the effect it has on you. When you pray you are communicating to Jesus, thanking him, asking for forgiveness, asking him specifically what you are wanting, but you are also laying your burdens at his feet and saying Jesus I'm handing this over to you.

The morning of Adeline's scans I prayed. I specifically said, "Lord I am laying this weight of her scans that I have been feeling at your feet. Please take this burden from me as I know that whatever the results are it is in your will." At that moment I felt the weight of it lift from my shoulders. I physically felt better but emotionally I felt even better. When you lay your burdens at his feet and allow them to be taken by him you are trusting in him. You are saying, "Lord I have faith in you!"

"come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

You are doing three things when you pray and let your burdens go to God. You are announcing your faith in him because you are trusting that he is able to handle what you have to give. You are growing in your relationship with him by praying and abiding in him. And you are physically or emotionally, or both, being relieved because you know that he has this. He is carrying that burden for you no matter the outcome and no matter the outcome he is there with you good and bad.

So prayer is powerful. It brings you closer to God, it allows for miracles to happen, and it allows you to physically and emotionally feel relief. God is so good and prayer is so powerful. I pray every day, multiple times a day now. I'm specific with my prayers so that God knows what I'm asking for. I always thank him, sometimes that's all I do. Sometimes I just talk to him about what burdens or feelings I am experiencing and then hand them over to him. Because of this, I've felt a change in my life.

Adeline's treatment has gone better than I could have ever hoped for. Did I want her to be fully healed, yes of course I did. But as I see other families going through this I know that we have been lucky. We have been so fortunate that sometimes I feel guilty. I know this could be so much worse but I also know that no matter what I am walking with Christ, abiding in him, and because of this I know that everything will be alright. Because of this I pray for others and what they are going through. I want their burden's to be light. Because of this, I share my story and the truth about God because I want others to bring their burdens to Jesus and lay them at his feet and feel the relief that it brings. And because of this I want to quote Greg Pruett who said, "I learnednot to pray about my strategies, but to make prayer the strategy." I want to make prayer my strategy, I want to make prayer my first go to in everything I do.

Thank you again for reading my blog, and thank you for making it through such a long post. I hope that you continue to come back. I'll see you next week...until then.