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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To all of my friends in Christ who prayed for my job interview last Thursday. I GOT THE JOB!
Thank you and I haven’t forgotten to pray for you as well.
To Jayne, I will certainly pray for your friend Debbie and her brother.Please ask her to just hold on to Jesus’ promise to be with us even in the midst of the storm.
Please pray for me I have a problem with my back. I am not in a lot of pain, however the doc says that that just indicates this is more serious because I must have serious nerve damage. I am losing feeling and function in my left foot. I go to see a specialist on Aug.11. Please pray for healing for me, and for wisdom for the doctor. If it is not God’s will that I be healed of this please pray that I can be at peace, because the idea of back surgery is scaring the life out of me. I am 45 years old and have 2 teenage girls and husband at home, our son is going to be away at University in the fall.I still have things that I need to be able to do.I work full time and I take college classes in the evenings.
Thank you for your prayers.
Patty
You haven’t said anything about what I sent you as far as my Journal is concern. Should I send it again, because somehow maybe got lost in the sending. Let me know if you get this.
Please pray for my friend Debbie, who’s brother was critically injured this past weekend in a car accident.
Thank you and God Bless!
Anomymous, I’m praying for you and your marriage. Most importantly I’m praying that the Lord will give you a clear understanding as to what is really going on in your marriage. I pray that you will put your focus on the Lord and seek him with all your heart for the anwsers that you need and your stength. I to have a husband that has been having an affair for sometime now so I can tell you that prayer is the best thing right now. If you like to email me at [email protected] I would be delighted to help in prayer.
Sonia, I am praying for you and your children to be healed and have peace in the mist of this storm. And pray for me and my boys we are trying to forgive and move on in our lives.
Renita
My prayer request is to pray my strength in the Lord. I am in the mist of many storms all at once and have been for the last three yrs. I’m to the point I just want to let everything go my marrage and my home they both have been one heart break after another and I’m seeking God for the answers that I need. I don’t want to be out of the will of God so please pray for me my marrage my sons and my home.
Dear Karen, I will pray for you right now. Keep leaning on the Lord; keep doing everything you can to help yourself; God will not forsake you – He loves you TOO MUCH!
My daughter Hannah graduated in May from a Christian university with an elementary education teaching degree. Years ago, she felt God calling her to teach in His kingdom.
She has applied and interviewed for teaching positions in various Christian schools with no success. She is contemplating teaching in the public schools, but jobs are scarce.
Hannah has medical conditions (spina bifida, diabetes) which make health insurance a must. Her benefits expire November 30th.
She is confused (Why did I earn a teaching degree if I cannot find a position?) and scared (What will I do for medical care when my benefits run out?) and hurt (What is wrong with me that no one will hire me?).
Please pray that the Lord will guide her to the place He has intended her to be all along, and that He will grant her trust and patience in the waiting. Thank you, and may God bless you! Debbie
Pray for me to have the courage to keep looking to God for my weight loss. I had been going to Curves but in the last two months I have stopped. This will describe my situation easier. I am 61 years old,I am 5’2’, small bone, but my weight is not according to my height. I weight 166, which is due to medicine that I took a year ago and gained weight with it, and haven’t be able to loss it yet. It is very difficult to loss weight when you have gained it through medicine.I take walks when it is cool. My Niece and Nephew-in-law have two dogs a Labrador and a Maltese which I walk also in the morning sometimes. They have 4 son’s one is 18 years old, going to College this year, one 15 years old, one 13 years old, and one 9 years old. I come to live with them after a series of problems. I am on a limited income
Please keep me in prayer; I will take two exams on August 10 and 11. I have to pass these exams in order to continue with school. If I do not pass them I will have to sit out for this semester till I pass them. This is my last semester. I know that my Father did not bring me this far too just leave me. Please pray for me that I will pass and be able to walk in December, and make the financial load that my husband has carry for almost four years lighter on him
Thank you for your prayers
Aminta
I read your devotion “I Hate to Burden You” posted on P31. It was truly a blessing. I have had many things weighing heavy on my mind recently. At the forefornt, was my mother’s health and my budding new business endeavor. My mother was diagnosed with renal failure and at one of her recent check-ups her doctor started the process of preparing for dialysis. Mom has been such a giving person all of her life, to the extent of putting her life on hold to care for me as well as other family members in need. In her retirement, my prayer is that she is able to experience some good times with her sisters. Her going on dialysis would gratly impeede that. Also, I am a newly licensed hair stylist and I am also back in school for my Instructor’s Certification. The combination of both things makes it hard for me to excell at either. I have been blessed with the support of friends and family in sending clients my way, but at nearly 2 months in, I am just surviving. To tie all of this together, after reading the devotional, my mind fell on my E-Sister who over the past few years has shared many devotionals, prayers, funny chains and the like. Using the internet on my phone, I emailed my sister asking her prayers for my mother and my business. She responded with a beautiful prayer and much needed encouragement and support. I am blessed to report that Mom got a good report at the doctor’s today and he has put off seeing her for three months. While she is not completely out of the woods, with God’s help, dialysis is still a good ways off. As far as my business goes, just the blessing that mom received, reaffirms that all is well and God’s in control, so I look forward to His favor in my business. Thank you so much for the devotional, it has helped me not only see God’s light in my life but also the light at the end of the tunnel. Be Blessed!
I’m asking prayer for my finances. I’m asking that god will open a window and poor out blessings that I will not have room enough to receive. I also ask prayer for our church Grace N Mercy, Pastor Joyce Mizzelle that we are in the process of building. Pray that god will release the finances that we need to build up the kingdom of God.
This is for Debbie who is struggling with her son’s addictions and trusting that he is healed.
Debbie, I am praying that you will continually choose to trust God in this. He knows the future so much better than we do and he really wants what is best for your son and for you. God has been showing me over and over that he has plans for us, for a future and a hope. We just need to choose to trust him – I will pray that you will grow in that trust and you will see amazing changes in your son.
Colleen
Dear Sarah, I WILL be praying for your brother. Through this search may the Lord bring healing, restoration, and a new found faith is the perfect plan he has for each of us. I pray for diligence and persistence in the face of obstacles to come. Keep me updated, [email protected]
My prayer is for a remember in asking for His sight, his eyes, and his ears, as he’s asking my family and I to move from Ohio to North Carolina. We pray for peace and patience in the waiting.
I need God’s direction regarding challenging financial situations and circumstances. Some are the result of my own ignorance and procrastination. Pray that I would be able to discern between faith and presumption. That I would have God’s peace and trust in Him. Blessings – Faith
Sarah, I just wanted you to know that I WILL be praying for your brother – whatan amazing journey he is embarking on. May God receive the glory, may healing and restoration be brought, and may He connect like only he can. I would love to keep in touch – [email protected]
I am asking for prayer for my family. We are awaiting the sale of our home as the Lord has called us to move from Ohio to North Carolina.
My prayer is that I will know the right words to say to my cousin, Lisa, at her mother’s memorial service.
Kelly
This is Debbie from Tennessee who
has the son in drug rehab. I am
writing to tell Jessica from California that I am praying for
her and her Aunt Dina who is struggling financially. God is in
control and He will provide. It may be at the last possible minute, but He WILL com through.
By the way, Jana, my first two children came as a gift of my marriage yet the desire of my heart was to have a natural child as well. We went for sixteen months without conception and now our youngest is a definite miracle from God. I am praying for you!!
Please pray for an opportunity for me to stay at home with our 3 children. Pray also for renewed affection between my husband and myself. Thanks!