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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My husband and I have been trying to conceive for over a year without success. Please pray that God’s will be done with our family. My prayer is that we will conceive and have a healthy pregnancy.
Jana from Arkansas
I have been praying for quite a while that God would restore my home, marriage,and family that has been destroyed by divorce. I feel that God put this burden in my heart to pray for my husband in spite of the divorce–his soul and salvation, return to the Lord, true repentance, return to our home marriage, family, his health, his family , healing of all relationships affected by the divorce, his finances, etc. It has been a long time and our sons are hurting still but also may be giving up . I want to be clear on this and I do feel it be God’s will but I also don;t understand all that happens and the time that is going by. I do not want to diminish or interfere with what god is trying to do in his life. I want my husband to return and it to work out. I do want God’s will in this. I desire for God’s best for us all. I know that he wants none to perish and that he cares for us. Please pray for clarity for us all on God’s will and desires for all of us, healing and forgiveness, softening of hearts, restoration, etc. I pray for god to change me into the woman –wife and mother that he wants me to be, our sons to be godly young men and someday the fathers and sons that god wants them to be, and of course my husband for him to be the husband and father that god calls him to be. KIM F.
I have been fighting ovarian cancer since 1992. God has blessed me with two remissions. The latest recurrence was in 2004 & since then, even after numerous chemo treatments, remission has been out of reach. My prayer request is that my latest blood work will show that I am in remission. I will know the results tomorrow, 7/23. "For nothing is impossible with God". Luke 1:37 Paulette
I hope it’s not too late to join!
I ask for prayer for or family, as we prepare to welcome a baby girl we are adopting (from China) sometime this fall. She is God’s blessing to us after years of trying various means to have children. Please pray for her health and care as she waits for us in China. We are praying that she is loved by her nannies as well.
Also, my husband has found himself in an unusual situation in his job. A transfer fell through literally at the last minute (right after we go our referral), and while he is still under contract with his school district, right now we are praying that a great position will open up for him– we know God’s hand is guiding all of this, even the loss of his other position.
I ask also for prayer for all of the waiting children around the world, waiting for their forever families. God loves them so, but I pray they will also know the love of an earthly family, too. Renee, I’ll continue to pray for your family as you walk through the adoption process.
I will lift up all of the needs posted here, but especially Gina in the Philippines.
Thanks, Renee, for opening this thread– what a blessing!
Kimberly
I am struggling with doubt and unbelief.Thank you for your prayers.Angel/Indiana
This is for my prayer Heidi who I am pryaing for this week who is moving from Florida to California for God give Heidi the strength she needs and the courage to get through this chapter in her life.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Your prayer partner Lisa from Albany,Ga.
I hope this is not too late to sign up for the power of a praying friend.
I would like prayer for us as we are in the process of trying to sell our house in order to move to another city where my husband has to start work in less than a month. We have found a house in that city that we really like and would love to put an offer on it but need to sell ours first. Please pray that if God wills, he would bring the right buyer for our house and that the other house would still be available. Pray that we would be patient and wait for his timing:) Thanks, Colleen
My name is Debbie and I am from
Tennessee. My 27 year old married
son is in a 6 month Christian drug
rehab program. From what I can tell, he seems to be doing great.
My problem is me. I am struggling
with believing that my son will
really be changed when he comes home. For 12 years he has done drugs off and on, partied, lied to
my husband and me, stole money from us, and no telling what else he as done. He’s even been in jail.
He told us several times that he
had changed, but he really had not. I am so afraid that he will
come back home and go right back
into his old life. I am a Christian and my son is a Christian. His counselor said he
is doing great. Even his wife can
tell a difference in him. But, I
am afraid to believe he has changed
because I don’t want to be hurt
again. I know fear is not of the
Lord, but of Satan. But, I just
cannot seem to get past this. Please pray first for my son and
that God will heal him and then for
me that I will have the faith to
believe that God will heal my son
and that I can experience peace
about this situation. Thanks!
hi, my name is Jessica and I’m from Simi Valley, California.
I would like to request prayer for my aunt Dina, she is going through financial harships, she got a house about 1 year and a half ago, but they layoff her husband from his job and now he got a nightshift job but pays a little, and they r trying to rent their house and r trying to find an affordable apt to rent, she feels broken becaude they cannot afford to pay their house and now has to find a place to live. I will greatly appreciate your prayers 🙂 God bless. -Jessica
We are in great financial need. We are one payment away from losing our house, car, and truck.
my husband and I both are in conctruction and we all know how the housing market is right now. Things have picked up some for us but we are so far behind on everything that what we are making doesn’t quite catch us up and by the time more money comes in we are far behind again. We have some property for sale. IF the Lord would choose to find us a buyer we would be in great standing. I realized the market was going to take a nose dive so I bought a women’s consignment shop. I was not able to make full payroll last week and the acct is in the red should all my checks clear. I am in a legal battle with the woman I bought it from because of SO many things, but bretch of contract will suffice to say right now. So I said that to say this, please pray our property will sell. We have four lots. That would take care of EVERYTHING.
Thanks
Roxine
I am asking for prayer for strength and understanding, better paying job so that i can be able to provide for me and my daughter. My husband divorced me last year and I was in school during the time. I had to drop out of school and get a job to maintain the household. I have only been able to make it with the help of my mom and sister. I need to hear from God on what i need to do? what is my purpose in life?
Renee,
I just have been able to read your story on prayer and friends. My family and I sure could use someones prayer. We just found out last week that our oldest son who is deaf. Not only does he have a Lung Disease but and Auto immune disease. But now he has the bad kind of rhemitoid arthistis. Let’s just say the wind went out of our sail’s. But I’m glad we have Jesus as our anchor. My son is so precious the way he serves the Lord is by taking up offering at chruch which I might add a very cheerful giver as well. Thanks, for taking time to hear my request.
In Christ,
Jeannine
Please pray for my husband as he begins the process of writing a resume and looking for a new job.
Thanks for your prayers.
Blessings,
Pearls from PA
My prayer is for my husband and his new job selling copy machines. I pray that God will show him what he needs to do and where he needs to go.
My prayer request is that God will give my Husband the direction he needs for his future. We were at New Orleans Theological Seminary when Hurricane Katrina hit and we were evacuated back to our home town. The seminary was closed, other doors were closed and financial struggles came into play and we were not able to go back to seminary. Just recently, someone designated money from our church to pay for my husband’s tuition and books so that he can go back to school and finish his degree but only if he will go full-time, which would require us to move again. It took a lot for my husband to make that commitment the first time and then we ended up back in Pensacola after the hurricane. Both sides of our family are here in our hometown and my husband has been at our church since he was 3 years old. I just want us to be in God’s will and if we are supposed to go back to seminary, it will take God getting my husband’s attention for us to go. Wherever the Lord leads him to go, I will follow.
Thank you for your prayers for my family.
To Pam in TX: I ask our Father to give you wisdom, patience and most of all unconditional love. It is what keeps me committed to the raising of my five grandchildren. It is a long, weary journey that never ends but one of my greatest loves that I have ever experienced is that of and for my grandchildren. Peace be unto you. Ms Nina
Please pray for me as I enter my second month of fertility treatments and IUI with my husband. It is difficult to hold on to my hope, as we’ve been trying to have a baby for so long–almost four years. We had a miscarriage about a year and a half ago. I have learned so much about God’s beautiful love for me during this procedure. I see how he has brought me closer to Him and to my husband, and how He has used me as an instrument of His peace. But it is hard to wait and be patient, and it is hard to keep His hope and joy in our hearts. Please pray for this peace to come upon our hearts in the coming month. Please help me to praise and thank the Lord through the tears! Thank you, Beth
My prayer is for my daughter. She is expecting her first baby on September 6th. She lives at home with us (her mom and dad). We have no idea what issues we will all face with the Daddy, he is currently not in the picture at this time. I am just praying for God to direct our paths and help us to know his will when it comes to the issues surrounding the baby’s father. One of the most disturbing things is the baby’s daddy does not believe in God whatsoever. So, I am also praying that he will find God in his life.Pam / Boerne, TX
This is for Joy who was having a hard time stating that she is needs her desire for the Lord renewed and for the Lord to wash away the guilt of the past. I was one who not only walked away from the Lord and did things that I never thought I would. I went from being a totally dedicated christian to a person that I didnt even know. I began drinking, I started smoking again, I was going through terrible things with my husband and was seeking a divorce from him and also began an affair. Getting back to the Lord was very hard for me because the enemy kept reminding me of my sins! A dear close christian friend of mine (who continued to love me in spite of my sins)gave me a scripture that truly help me…Psal 51. This is the prayer that David prayed after being confronted by the prophet Nathan regarding his sin with Bath-Sheba. The Lords forgiveness is there for you if you have repented. It is satan who continues to make you feel the guilt and shame! He wants to continue to bring it up to you. To remind you of the things that you have done. But God has cleansed you by the blood of Jesus! His grace is more than sufficient! I will keep you in prayer as one sister who has been there and can have empathy for your situation. with love in Christ Jesus. Julie from Indiana
Sarah my thoughts and prayers will be with you and your brother. God will provide the wisdom to say and connect on the right things, His things. I am also prayeing for the peace that come with reconciliation.
My prayer request is for the peace of God as I search for employment. I want to be in the center of God’s will, no matter where that may take me.
Martha