Planning, shaping, pressing in, waiting, and holding firm to a vision can be hard, even exhausting, as the weeks turn into months, and months into years. Think of Sarah and Abraham who had to wait 25 years for the promise of a son to be fulfilled.
When my husband had cancer and was undergoing treatments, we were holding out for healing, waiting, praying, hoping, trusting. Waiting is very hard work!
Whatever you are holding out for, groaning inwardly for, Scriptures encourage us, to “not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
To help us endure, Isaiah 40:30–31 reminds us that strengthening and refreshing come from the Lord, for
“even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint.”
What a promise!
But there is more. At times, we will have to fight for our minds, hearts and lives, and certainly to keep our visions alive, for every vision will be tested. Ephesians 6 warns us “we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Every Christian has enemies whose mission is to thwart our path at every turn. We must not only know what weapons God has equipped us with to fight, but also how to use them so we can be victorious.
Pastor/author John Piper offers this treasure of instruction:
Prayer is a walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world.
It calls on God for courage (Eph. 6:19).
It calls in for troop deployment and target location (Acts 13:1).
It calls in for protection and air cover (Matt. 6:13; Luke 21:36).
It calls in for fire power to blast open a way for the Word (Col. 4:3).
It calls in for the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers (James 5:16).
It calls in for supplies for the forces (Matt. 6:11; Phil. 4:6).
And, it calls in for the needed reinforcements (Matt.9:38).
“This is the place of prayer– on the battlefield of the world. It is a wartime walkie-talkie for spiritual warfare, not a domestic intercom to increase the comforts of the saints. And one of the reasons it malfunctions in the hands of so many Christian soldiers is that they have gone AWOL.”
My husband and I used prayer as a weapon during his season of cancer treatments. Not only did we pray daily, together and alone, but we mobilized prayer teams of family and friends all over the country. We held prayer sessions in our home—some lasted half a day with people coming and going like prayer warriors. At one point, we had over 100 people praying for us!
While we may never understand why some are healed and others are not, we do know that God is sovereign. We can trust He works all things for good, even the loss of a life can be used for His purposes and His glory. In our situation, after praying diligently, by the grace of God, my husband was completely healed. I teach in my book “Healed, Healthy and Whole, How We Beat Cancer with Integrative Therapies and Essential Healing Strategies” about the many kinds of healing prayers we used (http://www.healedhealthyandwhole.com).
Scriptures are how God talks to us, and prayer is how we talk to God. May you be encouraged and blessed as you journey with Him to victory.
“Prayer is the mightiest of all weapons
that created natures can wield.”
~Martin Luther
In Him we are more than conquerors!
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