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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hello, i thank you for your daily devotions that keep so encourge.
My mother and i never had a great relation, dont know why, but i have tried to reach her by summiting to all her needs, even i have wash her feet in symble of respect and humility and still she puts me down, and i think i had enough, i decide to put it in Gods hand and let her decide when she can love me without telling so many things that hurt, so i decide to stay away for awhile, am i desrespecting my mother by doing this or should i continue taking her bad comments and humiliation? i love her so much it hurts, but i dont like to feel down every time i visit her with her comments of what i did in the past and how its my foult that i was raped and molested by my own family, i still feel in my heart that she does not have the right to talk to me that way, but i must honor my mother according to the word of God, or should i try to stay away from her? this is very confusing for me please pray that the Lord will give me understanding about this situation, i want my mother to love for who i am, i forgive her for neglecting me, and leaving me with people that she knew where not responsible with children, well i was already five, but i still need your prayers, please
I was blessed to hear you speak at She Speaks, thank you. As I listed my doubts/fears on my card with things like self-worth, self-esteem, etc., I was so blessed to go forward and receive the card that said,”Able.” I believe God was telling me that I am to do much more than I believe I can do.
Well, right now, I need God to do more than is humanly able. My son has cancer. We have been in this battle for 6 years now and so far all brain tumors have been removed successfully and all treatments have had no long-lasting side effects. Nick is precious. Last week we discovered that the cancer has spread to three places. Two places in his brain and one on his vertebrae……….oh, Lord, please heal my son on this earth. We have a very critical appointment in Cincinnati on Wed, July 23rd, at 11 a.m. with one of the nation’s lead brain tumor specialists. Please pray for my son and for my other kids and for me and my husband. http://www.nick7-11.zoomshare.com for his story
God is leading my husband and I on a journey. We have been struggling financially for the last few years and everything is coming to a head. Please pray for unity between us in dealing with such things, boldness for me to speak to him in love the things he needs to hear, and for discernment from the Holy Spirit for me to understand something I may not yet understand. Also please pray that my husband’s and my heart will soften even more.
Thank you – Karla
hi renee, glad to have an opportunity to read your struggles with seeking people out for prayer. I’m also facing such problems. Always wonder is it right to impose on others my burdens. Thank you that your sharing has assured me that our sisters are always there for us if only we know!
Raquel… I will be praying for u that the lord would create in you such a heart that would long and thirst for more of Him.I have already marked my calendar to pray particularly for your sharing and I pray God will use you mightily as his spokesperson to glorify him.
Please pray for my transfer to my hometown.I have been teaching away from home for three years now and would love to return home to kUALA LUMPUR[my hometown].please pray that God will open doors that NO MAN CAN SHUT.
Thank you.
Sheena, Malaysia
My prayer request is that God would create in me a heart that would long and thirst for more of Him. I will be speaking on July 29, 2008 to college students in our city. Please pray for God’s power to be displayed and more souls will be saved. Please also pray for salvation of my family.
Thank you for your prayers…
raquel
Oops..its pretty late right now…
I misread my prayer gal, I will be praying for you Kim!
Please pray that I will be able to organize my thoughts and put them on paper. That my book proposal would be complete before the deadline of Sept. 30th.
Also that there would be some clarity about our church.
Thank you so much, Joanne, California
p.s. Elizabeth…I will be lifting you up in prayer this next week. Please email me if there is anything else that comes up that you’d like me to add to your prayer list. You can reach me thru my blog. blessings!
I’m praying for all of us.. that God will both bless and strengthen all of us both during and through our trials.
I pray for my sister above me in this blog that the Lord will be bring you to the church home, that your family will be strengthened and that your family will seek and hunger to know the Lord.
My prayer requests are: that my mom’s upcoming cat scan will be negative; and that I will soon receive the healing for long-standing physical illness, and if He wills, answers. I’ve grown so weary of feeling bad so long. I also pray that I will soon receive deep-level spiritual and emotional healing that keeps me from having the intimacy with the Lord I desire (which has also kept me single all these years; I knew I couldn’t have a lasting, Godly marriage without the first). I pray for a heart that is released and free to deeply know Him, and a heart that will always hungers for Him and His Word.
Please pray for my family. Pray that we find a church home, for our relationship with the Lord to be strengthened, as well as our relationship as a family to be strengthened. I will be praying for you, Jane, and your son Jordan. God Bless all of you who posted comments and all of you who did not have the words or courage to comment. In Jesus name. C in AZ
Dear Blessed B,
Please know that I will be praying for your husband, children and daughter-in-laws that they follow the path to Our Lord. I will also pray for your personal intentions, your job,and CD songs.
Your prayer partner,
Jane
Please pray for my son Jordan who has relapsed again, and will not seek help. He also continues to make poor choices with his circle of friends.
God Bless,
Jane
Dear Anonymous above Blessed B(me),
I will be praying for you and your struggles with a bipolar husband (my brother is also bipolar) and seeking to be a good mom yet being accused by your own mom of not measuring up. May the Lord grant you grace and peace and give you a fresh sense of his presence and guidance. Also, may you find someone you feel safe talking with. In His love,
Blessed B from L.A., CA.
My constant prayer is for my husband and children to return to the Lord, and for my two daughter-in-laws to be saved. Also praying for my younger brother to repent of his many life-long addictions, and for his wife to find strength and fresh direction following her recent leg amputation (due to diabetis and gangrene in her foot). For myself personally, God’s will regarding my job,and also completing the CD of songs from my heart.
Blessed B from L.A., CA
I am dealing with depression at this time.My bipolar husband spent a lot of money, and caused a great deal of financial problems within the last 2 months.My mother, who was a workaholic, accused me of being a bad mother, because my children love to be on the computer. I often feel as if I can’t talk about these things to most Christian acquaintances at church-they really don’t seem interested.
July 18, 2008 at 1:15 p.m. I received a call at work from my sobbing sister. She had just been fired from employment at a hospital she had been employed at for 15 years. She is 48 years old and an RN that has been in management positions the last few years. She was the main breadwinner of her family and unemployment will only be one quarter of what she was bringing home. They were financially strapped before this. She has acute fibromyalgia and wears a narcotic pain patch daily. She and her husband are Christians. They had put an addition on their home so that their living space was all on one level due to the fibromyalgia. Please join your prayers with our prayers for peace and wisdom for the family as well as guidance and direction for God’s will and purpose through this storm of life. Thank you. Sherry S.
Please pray for my seven year old daughter. She has to go in for a stimulation test on July 29. This test is done through either IV or Blood draws. Pray that the IV takes so that she does not have to endure many needles. Also pray that this test will help figure out what is going on in her body. The doctor beleives that an enzyme is being blocked in her adernal gland and this is causing her body to begin showing signs of early puberty.
Pray that I will not worry and leave this matter in God’s hands. The docotor has assured us that the issue is nothing serious. Pray that I will be patient and trust God through this.
Anita
This is a stretch for me because I’ve never asked for prayer outside of family. Please pray that my husband comes to know the Lord and his healing power. We have three little girls and I’m facing divorce with him leaving the state. I love him dearly and know that God wants this marriage to work. I’ve been a stay at home mom and have never worked before. I’m now needing to enter the workforce and I’m clueless and scared. Please pray that God gives me the strength and revelation on what to do and where to go. I am believing and praying everyday for a miracle in my husband’s life, our marriage being redeemed and financial breakthrough.
Thank you so very much for anyone who is willing to pray for me. It truly means the world.
Jayme,Ohio
Renee…
Thank you doing this prayer post…you are an amazing woman and mighty warrior!
Elizabeth…I will be praying for you that God would open doors for a job and that you would be dancing soon with a babe in the womb! Keep trusting and hoping…God is faithful!
My prayer request is for my husband and I to be debt free soon.
Thank you to whomever prays.
My husband, Ryan, just interviewed for a promotion at his work. We have been praying for open doors concerning his career, and felt that God had opened a door with this particular job. We are praying that Ryan gets the job, but more than anything, we want God’s will to be done, and to have the peace that surpasses our understanding regardless of the outcome. Thank you for your prayers.
Amie