So I heard this story about one my fellow team-mates and it really struck me as a powerful testimony to the power of prayeful faith. I've known his testimony for a long time, but I heard this particular part of it for the first time today I really wanted to share it. My team-mate Blair has not exactly grown up as a Christian; in fact he only became a Christian a matter of months before coming on this trip. He has an amazing testimony of how God changed his life of drug and alcohol addiction into who he is today: a solid and faithful, passionate man of God. Unfortunately I don't have the time to share his whole story, and I don't think I could really do it justice anyway, so let me just share this one part:

         Blair did not grow up in a Christian family. His father left when he was young, and his mother did the best she could to raise him alone I think. Although she was never a firm believer in God, she did have some small seed of faith in her life, and would pray every day. So when Blair started to get more and more involved in drugs and alcohol, she prayed harder and harder. Eventually it came to the point where Blair could no longer live at home anymore, and he was forced out. But still his mom continues to pray. Eventually God finds his way into Blair's life and frees him from that former life. He goes through rehab and begins to change his life around completely. He quit the rock band that he was part of and spent all his free time in prayer and Bible study. Basically he showed everyone that God has the power to change peoples' lives, even today.

         Later on Blair looks back at his mother's journal to find that every day after he had been forced out of the house his mother had written in her prayer journal for him. She was not even a believer yet, but she faithfully lifted him up in prayer, and her prayers were answered. And today they are both firm believers in the power and presence of God. I think it's pretty clear we don't see this happening very often any more. Why is it that we don't see God moving in powerful ways like that? It was certainly common place for the early church, and during revivals and in other countries of the world. BUT WHY NOT HERE? I think that we don't see God working in amazing ways, because we aren't living by faith in Him. In all reality we don't need to have faith in God any longer, because we are secure in our material things, our weekly church services and our safe prayers. How often do we put ourselves in a position that demands faith? How often do we pray for something passionately, expectantly, and faithfully: something that we cannot do on our own. Perhaps if we had faith like that, then God would reveal himself to us in new and exciting ways.

 

Some quotes on prayer:

         "The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!'" (J. Hudson Taylor)

         "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees."

         "I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it slpits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before."