I hate open heights! I can’t stand balconies, glass elevators freak me out, and when I am driving across a bridge, you’ll find me hugging the dividing rail along the inside lane.
Some friends tried to help me conquer these fears by inviting our family to join them one Sunday afternoon at Inner Peaks Climbing Center. I cringed at the thought of it, but JJ and our boys really wanted to go. So I caved in and agreed to a family “outing” inside this huge rock-climbing center.
When we entered the doors, my heart stopped beating as I look up at the highest peak – 25 feet! The instructors assured me that a web of ropes, harnesses and carabiners would hold me tight. Before I could say “no thank you,” I was strapped in and signing an injury waiver. I played it safe and stayed on the lower peaks.
Towards the end of the day, our friends John and Laura challenged their eight-year-old son Steven to climb to the highest peak – promising $5 in tokens and a cone of ice cream at arcade next door if he would touch the bar at the top.
Steven was afraid of heights, too, but he loved a dare. The promise of reward, mixed with the challenge and faith of his father evoked courage in Steven.
I watched with admiration as that little guy started the climb with confidence. He made it to 15 feet, then 20. But as he inched past the next face of the wall, he saw just how far he had to go before reaching the bar at the top. In fear, he looked down with tears and said he couldn’t do it. Then he cried out for his daddy’s help.
By this time, John was holding their very tired 3 yr old, and Laura was feeding their very hungry baby girl. I don’t know where my brave husband was, but as I looked around I realized I was the only one standing there who could do something.
Suddenly courage and strength surged through my body. I called out to Steven, “Don’t give up buddy. Wait for me to come to you. You can do it. I’ll help you!”
I said a quick prayer that God would help me and that Steven wouldn’t give up and start repelling his way down before I got to him. In no time, I reached the 20 foot marker. I crossed over the peak and up beside Steven to encourage him, reminding him of how far he’d come. Using my words and my confidence I focused his thoughts towards a higher goal, an inner peak, a reward that would be much greater than ice cream and game tokens – the reward of getting to a placehe had stopped believing he could reach.
My fear was gone. I had stopped thinking about me long enough to focus on helping someone else reach their goal and overcome their fear. Strangely enough, in that moment I overcame mine, and reached a peak of my own.
I became the response of a child’s cry for his father’s help. And that day became a picture of what happens when friends pray for and encourage one another. Like Jesus, we come alongside each other in some of life’s hardest challenges and highest peaks and we say, “Don’t give up, you can do it. Wait for me. I’ll help you.”
In that moment we take our eyes off our fears, our doubts, our struggles and set them on someone else’s needs. There we find faith to believe the power of God’s Word for them, and somehow our confidence in God’s promises and power are true for us in a way they may never have been before. That is the power of a praying friend!
Today, I invite you to join me in a conversation with God and some girlfriends so that we can experience what happens when women pray – for each other. This is your chance to share a request (a need, a hope, a desire) that you want someone to pray for you for this week. In return, you will pray for one person for the next week, too.
And because I love to share with friends books that draw me closer to Jesus, those who participate in our “conversation with God” will be part of a drawing next week for a new book called “Dear Jesus.” It is filled with devotions and scriptures that capture the heart of God’s response to every woman’s longings and intimate struggles.
Here’s how we’ll do this:
Click the word “Comments” below my name on this post (just under the 2nd green box).
Type in your prayer request in the white box.
Include your first name and where you are from.
(If you don’t have a blogger account, you can sign in as anonymous. But please include your first name at the end.) After type your request, click enter. Your comment will post.
Read the prayer request/comment above yours and pray for that friend.
Copy and paste it in an email to yourself as a reminder to pray for your new friend throughout the week.
On Monday, I’ll post about the power of praying God’s Word and share some of my favorite scripture prayers. Wouldn’t it be neat to find a Bible verse to pray for our prayer partner and post it in Monday’s comments? I’ll share how to do that.
There were two people in blessed in my story. But I never would have experienced what God had for me to give or receive that day if Steven hadn’t asked for help. I pray you will experience the power of a praying friend by promising to be one and allowing someone else to be one for you today. Be sure to click “comments” just below this box so that others see your prayer request and you find the request you are to pray for, too.
© 2008 by Renee Swope. All rights reserved.
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I dont know how to deal with my husbands son to other woman.it starting to ruin my life and my relationship with my husband.I find it difficult for me to allow my husband ad his son to talk and see each other.Ill always feel jealous everytime my husband expresses his feeling that he want to talk and see his sonI dont want this feeling of jealousy and anger to last in my heart.Please pray for me!Thanks
gina of Philippines
Please pray for my brother who is beginning the incredible process of coming to know his birth mother.
Hello, please pray that God will show me His will for my life. I haven’t been able to get a job and my husband and I were recently told the only way we could conceive is through IVF. I have applied for several jobs but I haven’t been able to get any of them. Sometimes I feel that God wants me doing something else, I just don’t know what. Thank you, Elizabeth
i would like prayer for my sister sharon to be healed of cancer.also my husband john health issues and my grandson dustin molster to be brought to justice.thank you.linda gee
Please pray for the healing of an ulcer on my left leg near the ankle. It hasn’t healed for many months and nothing the doctors have suggested has worked. My sister is arriving from Florida next Wednesday and I don’t want this to interfere with our time together.It is quite painful. Pat Haldin [email protected]
I have a 14 yrs old daughter who will be starting High School in August. There is so much that I want to share with her before she starts school.
She is a very bright girl but limits herself. She was diagnosed with ADHD and her teachers and I in the past have implemented modifications to help her with class work as well as homework.
My prayer request is that God would heal her of her ADHD, strengthen her weaknesses throughtout her high school years and that God would send her positive god fearing friends.
Thank you for your prayer….
My name is Carmen from Holly Springs, NC
Renee’,
I will surely pray for your prayer requests. Your adoption request is near and dear to my heart as my husband and I have adopted two very special boys through our county adoption system and I was an adopted child as well. This is a special calling–I wish you the best! My prayer request is that I be able to find a psychiatrist who is able to help me obtain the much needed medicaiton for my depression diagnosis. My meds have run out and although I pray and ask God for his support, some days I just cannot barely go on. I am so glad that I got linked to this site from an email today. God does lead us where he wants us to go.
Renee’, from Ohio
Please pray that God will help us with our finances. We need to get in control of what we are spending and to get ourselves into doing more saving and more giving to others. God has blessed us with good paying jobs and I want to use his money wisely.
Sandy
Thanks Renee. I loved this;
In that moment we take our eyes off our fears, our doubts, our struggles and set them on someone else’s needs. There we find faith to believe the power of God’s Word for them, and somehow our confidence in God’s promises and power are true for us in a way they may never have been before. That is the power of a praying friend!
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to put it into practice.
My prayer is two fold:
1) Direction in what area to serve in at church. I am passionate about teaching and writing, but I am making slides for power point. It is a needed service. I need to know if I should continue in it and for wisdom in finding a way to use my passions.
2) I struggle with depression and my emotions have been all over the place the last three weeks or so. I’m finding my self forgetful and irritable and those kind of things. I’ve managed before and I’m still managing, but I need some help making it over this hurdle.
Thanks for praying.
My husband and 19 year old son are currently in Bolivia serving on a mission team. I am requesting prayer for their safety, but further still, for God to do his shaping work in the hearts. I want them to receive clarity and vision for the next step in the journey. Many thanks.
peace~ elaine (north carolina)
Our family car broke down yesterday and could cost up to $1800 to fix (we should know on Monday), it is our only transportation….our finances are having a tough time and I am trying to find a job that is right for me so that I can help get my family back on our feet…..
I know these are all test of our faith for us but please pray that our car problem and repair cost are very minimal and I find a job that is suited best for me which will allow me to continue caring and be there for my family.
Keep the Faith,
Paula Fraijo from California
I want to go deeper with God. Deeper, deeper, deeper.
Rebecca
Mississippi
I am asking for prayer for my children that they are set free from the bondages of alcohol and drugs. I also am asking that my faith be restored and for healing physically, mentally, and spiritually. I need courage and strength to pursue the purposes of God in my life.
Thank You and God Bless
Please pray for me that I can find my way back to a stronger, more loving relationship with my husband and regain the interest and excitement I first felt about him.
I’m having a medical issue that is not very serious, but a serious annoyance. I hate to ask for prayer for this because it isn’t as serious as some prayer requests, but to know that someone out there is praying for me would be reassuring. I know the Lord can heal me and help me deal with this stress. Thank you for your prayer!
-Kim, Arizona
I have had a series of bad things happen from 9/07 to now, my brother dicovered he had a brain tumor that turned out to be cancer and he had a stroke on top of that, another brother had to have bypass surgery, my son was shot, and the man that I spent the last 19 years with hoping to marry walked out in the middle of all of this and he did it in a horrible way. I need help.
Please pray for me I have just been told that I have a ruptured disk in my lower back and that I will probably need surgery.I don’t have alot of pain which is an indication that I have already done some serious nerve damage.So it is scary, I don’t know too many people who have had good results from back surgery and I am very concerned. Also pray that I will be able to go with my family to our church camp this week and not be a big drag because of this back problem.
Thanks
Patty from Saskatchewan, Canada.
I feel the Spirit has led me here today. Why, I don’t really know, but it’s always exciting to see. My prayer request has to do with my son. He’s 25 and very unhappy. We are a close family and he appreciates that, but he feels a need to try moving away in search of a better life for himself. I can understand that part. The part I can’t understand is that he wants to go so far away that we will only see him about 3 times a year instead of the 2 times a week like now. I have tried to ask him to consider somewhere closer so that we could at least get back and forth on a normal weekend,but I believe that while he wants to move, he is not up to moving where he knows noone, and where he is going, there is a college friend for him to connect with.
My heart is breaking and I am feeling injured by him. Please pray for my son, that God’s Will will prevail, and for me that I will be able to let go of my resentment and hurt. If it is God’s will that he go, then I need to be able to be at peace about it. If it is not God’s will, I pray that God will protect him from making a mistake.
I’m sorry this is so long. Thank you for all you do.
Debbie in Memphis
Please pray for my husband, Larry, who live in constant, chronic pain due to injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident 3 years ago. He is just beginning treatment with a new pain specialist who seems to be approaching him in a thorough and caring manner. Pray for wisdom for the doctor and healing/pain relif for Larry. God Bless…Pat
Praying for all of the ladies that have posted and especially the one before me.
My prayer request is for wisdom, discernment, and oh patience in dealing with my ex-husband. Also for my teenaged boys to have a better relationship with their dad. And for our Church as we start up a DivorceCare recovery group. Roxie