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 pray that each and everyone of you is given peace and grace through your requests! I could not find just one to pray for! May wisdom and patience be rained on you as each and every one of you walks through your daily life.
In christ’s love
Kathy, I will be praying for you. I too am in the exact same situation and there are scriptures that have encouraged me that I would like to share with you. Psalm 37:25:I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
Psalm 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
I hope these scriptures will encourage you. My prayers are with you!
Julie
Please pray for my daughter. She just had her third invitro and she is very weary of the whole treatment. My younger daughter is pregnant so this is also hurting my older daughter. Please pray for God’s will in this situation. Infertility can be so painful. I am afraid she is becoming bitter towards God.
Thank you for this opportunity to make “friends”. I do not have any. Many people I know, but not friends. My prayer is for strength and a clean heart as I endure the ups and downs of everyday life with 5 grandchildren and 2 adult children in the house while trying to some how find a life for myself. I am so weary and feel like running away but I made a committment and I am still hanging in there after all these years. Bless you for this opportunity. I usual just rely on myself and my own prayers. With many tears
Ms Nina
My husband and I have been trying to conceive for over a year. We have been unsuccessful and I am trying to remain prayerful about God’s will and timing. Please pray for us as we continue trying to conceive.
Janna
Thank you for your awesome and powerful message on the Power of a Praying Friend. I can relate with you because I do not like to impose on friends, and I find myself sometimes dealing with issues alone that would have been shared with friends. I need prayer for my teenage daughter who is pregnant, and her dad who has not talked to her for 8 months. I need prayer that God restores their relationship. Thanks, Annah
Diane,
I have continued to pray for you over the weekend and will continue through out the weeks to come.
We must thank Jesus in-advance for the things we hope for. Our Lord is in the business of even changing our sibblings. Our GOD can use what ever has already been done to us, for His glory and good.
We must line ourselves up,according to His will(be/stand exactly where Jesus wants us to be.That we can control w/HIS help, then be still.)Watch with anticipation! He will do the rest, in His timing.
“We thank you and praise you Lord, in-advance for all our answered prayers.”
God Bless you all.
Kathie of CA
I know that I am a little late to join in but Sonia, I will be praying for you and your kids. Please pray for my mother in law who is battling cancer. She has been so brave and a true inspiration but her fight is both physically and emotionally exhausting. Thank you for your prayers!
Mindy
My prayer request:
My husband left me last year in July. I have 3 teenage children who need to know God as their Father and need Jesus to bind up their broken hearts. I need His strength and direction for my future.
Sonia
Hey Renee, I need prayer, just as I was reading the comments posted on your blog, somebody walked into my office and said he was thinking of me and normally when that happens he wants to know what it is and that he can pray for me, I said nothing, but I lied and I know God put me on this man’s heart for a purpose, please pray for me for my marriage, have a lovely husband, but just struggling to be intimate, now you know why I cannot tell this other man. Also pray for my children’s studies.
Please pray that Larry would find a job quickly and that I would not worry. That I would trust God because He sees the big picture and I do not.
Kathy
I am seeking prayer for my husband Jim. In short he is saved, a good willed man with a good heart. However, his harsh tone and words, and angry actions cut through me and my children like a knife. He was raised that way plus he has a military background. I have been praying alone for him and his behavior for along time. I need an intervention so that I can continue to live out the gospel as I should. Please pray for him and our marriage.
Melissa from NC
So much to pray for. I would just like to encourage all of us to remember that we are more than conquerors in christ and all the things set in front of us we will overcome. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. I encourage each of us to annoint our homes with praise and worship. Please pray for a family in our church the father is having brain surgery this tuesday and again next tuesday. He is a father of 4 children and a beautiful wife. Hang in there ladies this is the day the lord has made rejoice and be glad in it.
God Blessings to you all
Renee thanks so much for your devotion. It reminded me that I am not self-suficient and in addition to relying on God, I also need to be reying on my friends. I need prayer to have the courage open up and be vulnerable with my friends, allowing them to see my faults and weaknesses. Also with finding balance as a mom, wife, friend, part-time teacher, and my responsibilities in the church.
-Sandy in Maryland
My prayer is that i get a loving and caring husband who cares for me and my son. i also pray for a good paying job, and that i will get a job where i applied. i want also good accommodation by august. thank you for your prayers
Marther – ZIMBABWE
My prayer is that i get a loving and caring husband who cares for me and my son. i also pray for a good paying job, and that i will get a job where i applied. i want also good accommodation by august. thank you for your prayers
Marther
I have posted my prayer request on my blog sight posted Sunday evening and I do hope for your prayers. Thank you!
Anonymous-I will pray for your situation daily!!!
In His Graces~Pamela
I am a widow with 3 beautiful girls with hearts for the Lord… My best friend/husband went to be with the Jesus, 10 years ago… I was happy raising my girls and started praying if the Lord wanted me to marry again,,, He would bring me a man. (I havent’t dated in 10 years… I met Kevin online, fell in Love again… Only when I met him..face to face I pretty much rejected him…(cause he was 2 inches shorter than me…very very stupid.. So the relationship was ruined…The good that came out of is was that it pushed me into the arms of JESUS.. My desire is just to trust the Lord and OBEY …(Some times I still want Kevin back, but mostly what I want is the LOrds plan for my life. He has put it on my heart that I would LOVE to be married… So please pray for disernment and Just for me to follow Gods leading… Blessing to you all sisters in christ.. kathy
Pam I am lifting you and your husband up in prayers right now… Rest assured, God is in control and he will honor your request…in his timing God bless you
My prayer request is actually kind of for both my husband and myself. I am longing to adopt a daughter from Asia and be a mother once again and my husband is not sharing in my desire. I am asking that you pray for him to feel the desire as I do in my heart or if it is truely not meant to be that you pray to take that desire from my heart. I feel very torn as I think of it all the time and I am afraid that it will become a resentment in our relationship if he never comes around and I just can’t let go of the idea.
Pam
I am already praying for all of you who have posted here. It is uplifting to see how many women are trusting the Lord with their heaviest burdens. I would be grateful if you would include me in your prayers. My family and I were hoping to purchase the house we live in from our landlord, but he is being very unreasonable. I know we can find another home for a much better price than he is demanding (the sad thing is that he is actually shooting himself in the foot–the price is terribly unreaslistic, even laughable, in this market, and we seriously doubt he’ll sell to anyone), but the uncertainty about where we’ll be living in the next several months is killing me, as well as the thought of packing up and moving from a home that we love. Would you pray for a speedy resolution to our situation? Time is of the essence because of the impending start of the new school year for my children.
Thank you!
Charlene