Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

Lamentations 2:19 ESV


Monday, March 3, 2014

Doing Whatever It Takes

Ron Hutchcraft wrote, "When someone you love is in trouble, you do whatever it takes to rescue them."
 
Do you have a child that needs rescued? What are you willing to do? Whatever it takes?
 
According to Ron, that means the high probability of rearranging your life, canceling some meetings, sacrificing some personal preferences, and limiting your commitments. Fern Nichols likens it to scraping some things off your plate.
 
Why?
 
In order to do what is necessary to rescue someone, you have to apply the correct life-saving tactic. In the case of spiritual rescue, the primary thing is prayer. This is because we are fighting an unseen enemy AND because it is the Lord that turns hearts. So, prayer is the strategic tool to use. And, prayer, serious committed prayer, involves the use of time.
 
Taking time to pray is a deliberate action of removing that time from some other activity. And making time to pray is an intentional action of planning ahead to have that time set aside unconditionally. That is what an intercessor chooses to do to be a part of the rescue of another.


Our culture has too much to offer, too many good choices—for us and for our kids. And as mothers, often what involves our kids means our own personal involvement. We quickly find our "plate" stacked high.
 
For example, I can't not count the number of soccer games I attended when my children were young, and that's just the games. Who knows how much time was given to practices?

 
But, what if we as moms scrape off our plate just one soccer practice a week to spend that time in prayer with other moms for our children? What if?
 
The enemy is REAL. He is serious about the business of making sure our children do not have their names written in the Book of Life. How serious are we?
 
The lives of those we love depend on our prayers. What are we willing to do? Whatever it takes?
 
Fern Nichols, Founder and President of Moms in Prayer International, wrote that "if we recognize the line and cross over it to be intercessors, God will move heaven and earth to answer our prayers, and we will begin to see great victories and Satan's defeat. Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint on her knees, for he knows he has no power against our prayers that are prayed according to God's will."
 
The enemy knows the power of our prayers. He can read.
 
And another angel came and stood over the altar. He had a golden censer, and he was given very much incense (fragrant spices and gums which exhale perfume when burned), that he might mingle it with the prayers of all the people of God (the saints) upon the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense (the perfume) arose in the presence of God, with the prayers of the people of God (the saints), from the hand of the angel. So the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and cast it upon the earth. Then there followed peals of thunder and loud rumblings and blasts and noises, and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
Revelation 8:3-5 (AMP)
 
What would happen if we did whatever it took?


No comments:

Post a Comment