Why Don’t We Pray More?

John 14:14 “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

I am humbled at the events of last night.  I should cease to be amazed, but I never am.  Eleven women gathered at the foot of the cross last night and poured out our hearts to God for two hours straight. As we were praying, a team of five women and one driver went into five area strip clubs to share the love of Jesus with the dancers.

The outreach team would text the prayer team updates throughout the night.  On nights like these, my faith grows so much.  God is real! God hears our prayers and answers them!  How amazing is that? The God of the universe, our creator, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords – He hears us!! I know that’s a lot of exclamation points – but I’m just that super crazy excited.

The day leading up to the outreach was a stressful one, I struggled with a nasty headache that continued to deteriorate as the day progressed.  In a desperate attempt to be well enough to well enough for the evening I downed a double espresso. In faith I headed to church and feeling worn and tired.

When the service concluded, the temptation was great to head home. After spending the afternoon at the airport, my husband’s plane was cancelled due to bad weather. He was unexpectedly home for the evening – to depart around 3am the next morning.  Surely everyone would understand that not only was I sick – I had an opportunity spend the evening with my husband before he left on business.

Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 

I knew deep down in my soul God was asking me to go deeper with Him. Too long had my husband taken #1 priority in my life.  I knew I needed to not just say I loved God with words, but I needed to show Him He was my first love – my first priority.  And – I knew I had to do it with a good attitude as I learned last week.

So I took a deep breath, kissed my husband on the cheek and whispered, “I need to do this. I need to show God He is first.”  And then I headed to the group of waiting women on their knees at the foot of the cross.

We began our time of prayer just worshiping God for who He is. Then we moved into a time of praying for the safety of our team as well as open doors at the clubs. We prayed Scripture, we prayed for the girl’s who would be receiving the gifts we had prepared for them.  The first text of the night came 45 minutes later.

We got into every club!!!  Thank you JESUS!!!

The team had taken gift bags  with cards and our contact information into four clubs and were granted entrance into each one.  A miracle!!  In the past, one club has refused to accept our gifts at all.  Another hasn’t accepted them the last two times.  The next text:

Girls at (specific club) were giving us prayer requests!!!

What?!  Really??  That’s amazing!! Our prayer turned to pray for these specific requests the dancers had given.  The year of faithful reaching out to the girls was showing fruit. They seemed to know we were there because we know how much Jesus loves us and we want to share that with them.  Next text:

Six gifts at (specific club). Good talk with the manager. She wondered if we would come on Valentine’s Day.

Those of us back at the church on our knees were so humbled to see God moving in our city. The manager was looking for us!!  The team had two more clubs in the area to visit and they were shown favor there as well, hand delivering gifts to each girl working.

The outreach team returned to the church and we ended the night as both teams merged into one and we praised Jesus for all He had done and is continuing to do. Every gift was handed out – 75 in total!  We were granted entrance into 7 local clubs.  God is working!!

I returned home, confident that I had made the right decision – I had received the greater blessing tonight.  But, as I walked in the door my husband greeted me and said he had another change in his flight – he wouldn’t be leaving until noon the next day. We would have the following morning to spend together – more time than we would have had if I had just come right home.  God is just so awesome!!!

Rom. 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”