If you are like me, there are seasons when your prayer life seems out of sorts…when it feels as if God is not speaking or leading you as He perhaps has in the past. It is during such times that I begin to question why there is a lack of the sense of God’s presence. In faith, I trust that He is near, but in my flesh I wonder whether I have either been praying with wrong motives or have begun to treat prayer as a perfunctory act instead of a relationship. Such spiritual crisis and the subsequent feelings of a lack of closeness to God causes me to recognize that perhaps I have turned away from the practice of some specific spiritual disciplines that help me to lean more intently and purposefully toward my Father’s heart. These times always remind me of the importance of consistent rhythms of prayer in my everyday life.

Yet, there have been times when self-examination reveals no discernible reason for God’s silence or distance, which allows doubt to creep into my soul.  Saint John of the Cross, who lived in the 1500s, described such an experience as the “dark night of the soul,” which can be described as a time when prayer becomes difficult or unrewarding for a period of time. It can be as if one’s prayer life has virtually collapsed, sending a person into a season of doubt and confusion.

King David, the “man after God’s own heart,” experienced such times; however, his experience is what always gives me hope! In Psalms such as 13 and 22, David expresses anguish over God’s apparent absence or withdrawal from him: Psalm 13:1 – “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” However, he never loses his unwavering faith that God is good, trustworthy and constant. David’s authentic feelings of abandonment are always tempered with phrases like this one: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me” (Psalm 13:5-6). 

God’s Word says that if we seek Him, He will be found by us. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). There are days when my whole heart is not actively engaged with seeking God. There is a disconnect between my doing and my being and between my spiritual life and my secular life. If Jesus to be the Lord over all of my life, I can’t craft walls that allow Him entry into one area and not another. He is Lord of my everyday life…not just the parts I want Him to be involved in. There is nothing He can’t see, and nothing that He is not already actively engaged in, whether I am pressing in or not. And, in the times when I feel that I am leaning into Him, even in desperation, and there is no answer…my response must always be to trust that He is at work. If I seek Him, He will be found…even though it may not be in the moment I expect or desire. I know that His love for me is constant, and that sometimes His silence and my “dark night of the soul” may be my Father’s purposeful plan to build within me an even deeper trust.

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:24-34)

With the crowd almost crushing him, Jesus made his way through the enthusiastic mob on his way to heal a young girl. There were many people touching him constantly, and yet…there was one touch in the midst of it all that stopped the Lord in His tracks. After twelve years of bleeding, one woman, who had suffered and grown worse at the hands of many physicians, simply reached out to touch his cloak – believing in her heart that she would be healed.

Through God’s grace-filled love and mercy, this woman, who didn’t want to be noticed or identified, had a simple thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” And God, through the power of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in His Son, chose to bless her act of faith with complete healing. Did she know that it was God’s will to use her to bring glory to Himself? Perhaps not; however, her humble act of faith provides a good model for us to pray bold, faith-filled prayers, believing that God has the power to transform our lives. 

There are several compelling things about prayer in this passage:

Declaration of faith: First, the woman had a thought that Jesus could heal her, perhaps because she had heard about how He had healed others. I believe the thought itself came from the Holy Spirit actively at work. She could have dismissed the idea…but she didn’t. It gave her hope, and she had no other recourse than to trust and believe that what had been impossible for twelve years was now possible. In her own spirit she declared what she fully believed to be true and prayed the prayer of her heart as an affirmation of that faith: “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

Action of faith: Second, she felt she must act upon the silent prayer within her. Summoning the courage to brave the crowds, she acted upon the faith of the testimony of her heart.

Receiving the answer to her prayer of faith: Immediately, the woman received her healing and felt it in her body.

Giving testimony of her faith: Even though it was not her intent to shout her healing to the world, when Jesus called her out, she came forward to declare what had happened to her in response to the cry of her own spirit and the believing act of faith.

Surely this timid woman had asked God over and over again to make her well. Yet, with this one simple act, her prayer was answered. The immediacy of her healing most likely shocked and overwhelmed her…the face to face encounter with Jesus was completely unexpected…and the affirmation that it was her act of faith that had brought her healing surely brought her great joy!

Jonathan Graf has stated, “Declaring prayer simply means that once we know God’s heart on an issue, we boldly pray that it will be so, and then walk in faith that it is already so – even if the answer is not yet.”

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

One of my favorite verses on prayer is a real challenge to me to persist in my praying. Habakkuk 2:1 calls us to a commitment to pray until something happens. “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”

The prophet Habbakuk’s situation was clearly wrapped up in prayer. In the first chapter he was bringing to the Lord the crisis facing the nation. The Lord’s response was confusing and unexpected. Habbakuk didn’t quit. He kept praying, and here in the beginning of the second chapter declares his intention of continuing to pray. But this was not a situation where someone decides to keep praying until God gives them want they want. Not at all! As a matter of fact, what Habbakuk was hearing was not what he wanted.

His commitment to persistent prayer was not about his own desires, but God’s purposes. He could easily have said, “I don’t like what I’m hearing from God, so I quit.” But this was a man of prayer who understood the critical need of standing on the (spiritual) wall of his nation and crying out until the purposes of God were revealed.

This short prophetic book gives a hard answer to Habbakuk’s prayer. Invasion was coming. Tough times were about to hit the people of God. But the prophet also saw a vision of God overcoming evil. He saw a time when, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”(2:14).

It is time for that sort of persistence in prayer for the people of God today. We face times of crisis. Who is crying out for the purposes of God to be revealed in our day? Who will stand at their watch and pray? Not the kind of prayer that tries to talk God into giving us what we want, but lining our prayers up with the desires of God. I invite you to join me in praying one of Habakkuk’s prayers: “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2).

Perhaps you struggle, as I often do, with what to give your spouse, children, or other loved ones on their birthdays or holidays! Have you considered the incredible gift of Blessing Prayer? Over the years, I have found much joy in being on the giving and the receiving end of prayers that bless. My younger sister gives me the incredible gift of one minute of prayer for each year of my life every birthday. She prays for me every other day as well, but her covenant to pray for me on my birthday is such a special blessing to me!

Other than the gift of interceding for others, it is especially powerful to pray specific “blessing prayers” from Scripture over loved ones, missionaries, neighbors, coworkers, pastors and church leaders, and yes, even “enemies.” Not only has God commanded us to pray for others, He has given us multiple ways to do so that please His heart and agree with His kingdom purposes.

Here are some of my favorite blessing prayers to pray for others:

Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

You can personalize your prayers as well. For example: God of Hope, may You fill my spouse/son/daughter, __________, with all joy and peace as he/she trusts in You, so that he/she may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 – “We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

2 Thessalonians 3:5, 16 – “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance…Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”

Hebrews 13:20-21 – “May the God of peace…equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Philippians 1:9-10 – “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”

It is always good to pray blessings for others…what an incredible way to love them and to show that love! There are many creative ways to deliver these prayer blessings. Here are just a few:

In Person! I love to place my hand on someone’s head or shoulder and pray blessings over them. This is especially amazing to do with your children. One day, after praying the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 over my youngest son for the first 4 years of his life, he put his hand on my head and blessed me back…not only had he internalized the Scripture, he understood the power of blessing and wanted to offer it back to me as a gift.

Special Occasions – weddings, showers, new babies, birthdays, graduations, retirements and other celebrations give opportunities to bless people!

Notes and Emails – It only takes a few moments to change someone’s day through encouraging them with a written blessing, and the acknowledgment that you are praying this blessing for them. Pastors and missionaries are especially grateful for these blessings…and they always seem to arrive at just the right time when we allow the Holy Spirit to prompt us.

May our hearts be moved to bless others in prayer as we go about living a transformed everyday life!

 (c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

I used to struggle uncomfortably with the command of God to be holy as He is holy…not because I didn’t believe it or think I could become more holy, but because I couldn’t imagine being holy in the same way that God is holy. I equated holiness with perfection, which only God is. Until I understood fully that the Christian life is a process of becoming holy through emulating the life of Jesus Christ, I fought the despair of never being able to attain what the command seemed to imply.

A few years ago, a friend of ours gave us a copy of a book he had written, and in it I discovered what for me, was an incredible treasure about the holiness of God compared to the holiness of His people. In his book, God Focus, Walter Price shared a fascinating insight. He stated that when comparing degrees or levels of holiness in English, we use the terms holy, holier and holiest. In Hebrew, there are no such words to describe different degrees of holiness; therefore, the word holy is repeated in order to give it higher levels of importance. For example,  “holy, holy, holy” equates to “holiest”. We, God’s children, can be holy, but only God is “holy, holy, holy.” Only God is “holiest.”

I recall a sermon my husband, Dave, preached where he pointed out that holiness is a process that requires something of us, even as the Lord “makes” us holy: “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy” (Leviticus 20:-8). To be consecrated means that we are set apart for a purpose…God’s kingdom purpose! If the Lord, who makes us holy, is to do so, we must first set ourselves apart from the standards of behavior that the world says is acceptable. We must keep His decrees and follow them, even if they are unpopular with the world. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, “…let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. We are to set ourselves apart because of our reverence for our Father.

Therefore, my prayer for holiness must come from a heart of deeply felt worship, awe and desire. It is a realization that I will not be “zapped” with holiness simply because I ask my Father for it. With the life of Jesus as my model and the Holy Spirit as my teacher, I must pray for the strength to set myself apart and do what He has commanded. My prayer includes gratefulness that I am able to be in the process of holiness only because my Abba Father is holy, holy, holy!

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries