PRAYER WARRIORS!
A few months ago, God told me to assemble some prayer warriors to pray continually for the ministry, me, and my family. He instructed me that there were things that would only be accomplished through prayer. If you think I share everything except my bra size in these devotionals, your eyebrows would really go up regarding what I share with the prayer team – mainly my very personal weaknesses and my very personal needs. It’s a very humbling thing to bear your heart to someone – to admit your weaknesses so that you can be prayed over and ministered to. It’s beyond humbling, my friends.
I am finding, however, that it is so very necessary! It’s strange for me (but growing more familiar each day) to be a woman who cries, shares weaknesses, and loves deeply. I never used to be like this. I used to be tough, hard, and independent. When I was a soldier in the US Air Force, I got good at hiding emotions. But as a Warrior Woman for God, He requires more of me. He requires that I be real, admit weaknesses, and share my needs with the prayer warriors He has assigned.
Today, the day I am writing this devotional for you, was a very tough day. I was driving to the college where I provide counseling to college students. It’s part of my training for the doctorate degree. On the way there, however, I started bawling. I had to pull over and call my prayer warrior friend. I knew I would not be able to help someone else with their problems on this day. She very wisely advised me to turn around and go to the park for the day. She advised me to go to a quiet place and get some rest with God.
Mk 6:30The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.
Mk 6:31Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
Mk 6:32So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
I took her wise advice. Fortunately, I had my Bible with me. I also had a bottle of water. I should be good for a few hours.
To my surprise my prayer warrior friend met me there! She read from the Come Away with Me devotional. She read aloud as I cried. We sat on the swinging bench together that overlooked the lake. Ducks swam, children played, and my prayer warrior friend ministered to me, prayed over me, hugged me, and provided some of my immediate physical needs (a chicken biscuit and a coke to name just two of her blessings). As she drove away, God reminded me how ministering angels tended to Jesus after His 40 days in the wilderness with the enemy. I asked Him to bless her 100 fold for her sacrificial kindness to me. He assured me that He had already set her blessing of obedience in place (before I even finished asking Him to do so).
I am humbly reminded of how God works through others. I am humbly reminded how we must ask others to pray for us, forgetting our pride and lies of self-sufficiency behind. I am reminded and encouraged that God desires for me to love on someone else the way that my prayer warrior friend loved on me today. And, I simultaneously encourage you to go away to a quiet place and get some rest with your Father-God. If you are rested and restored today, I encourage you to ask God how He might minister to someone else through your physical, tangible obedience today.
Kristina Seymour loves to encourage and equip women through the Word and through community. She is the author of The Warrior Mom Handbook, The Warrior Mom Leadership Manual, and The Warrior Wife Handbook; they are available at Amazon.com. Kristina's Bible studies are for women who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. She has learned that women can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about Kristina, please visit her recently founded Share & Company Publishing House http://seymourkristina.wix.
Originally published Tuesday, 30 May 2023.
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