Seeds of Prayer

The phrase “prayer changes things” can seem cliché if you have been part of a church body for a length of time.

“All we can do now, is pray.”

It can make one feel as if she were powerless, and as if prayer were a last resort

My dear fellow mom, your prayers are anything but powerless! Your prayers are jammed packed full of power to affect change in the lives of those around you.

Praying over our children and spouses can be like planting a garden.

This spring when we planted our garden, some seeds sprouted and grew sooner than others. When I plant potatoes, I can’t expect to eat potatoes for dinner the same day that I planted them.

Winter is a great example of planting prayer seeds.

In the winter, the leaves fall off the trees and things look brown, bleak, and dead. There are few signs of life in the trees, grasses, and landscape. It’s a cold, seemingly dead picture.  

However, there is something significant happening under the surface of the earth. The soil is regenerating: important composting materials are breaking down into nutrients the earth needs.  

More importantly, what looks to be a bleak, dead situation on the surface, is teeming with life and change under the ground.

Then spring comes, and you start to see the results of what has been happening all winter long. You begin to see new life sprouting; life that had been rooting itself under the surface for months and months.

Things are happening in a realm that we cannot see…and just because we do not see immediate results,  it doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.

What situation is looking bleak in your life right now?

A marriage? A relationship?  A prodigal child?

My friend, plant the seeds of fervent and effectual prayers.

The Bible tells us in James 5:16 that our prayers WILL accomplish much. I like the way the Message says it:“The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.” Galatians 6:9 also tells us, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

We WILL reap a harvest; not we MIGHT reap a harvest.

Your prayers (sometimes even tears can be prayers!) are going forth to accomplish great things. Don’t give up when don’t see an answer on the surface.

In the recesses of hearts, deep under the surface, in the hidden places, the Holy Spirit is at work. He is moving, even when on the surface it looks like winter. Don’t give up! Spring will come.

Prayer:

Father, I thank you that you are working even when I don’t see it on the surface. Help me to not give up on praying for those whom you have entrusted to my care. Give me your words to speak over them. I thank you that you are a God who can do all things.
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Author: Charity DeVries

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