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Prayer seems to come so easy for some. I love being around those who have been given the gift of prayer. Prayers obviously prompted by the Holy Spirit. Prayers that make you feel like you’ve just been ushered to the feet of God! Too often, my prayers are for me because I am so desperate for healing on so many levels. It is more difficult than it used to be for me to pray, because I can’t always see past my own pain and “spiritual weeds.” I pray for my family and friends and needs I am made aware of, but then again, I do not trust my own heart, so I take these matters before the Lord—desperate for the Holy Spirit to guide my words, my prayers. Desperate for the Holy Spirit to speak louder than my heart!

It was in the quiet morning hours when the Lord challenged me, “Ask ME how you should pray.” The silence captured my attention, and a transformation began. “How to pray” was a revelation I had after the tragedy, because the fact was magnified that I had NO CLUE what to pray, how to pray, or what God wanted me to pray. That’s the one that stung the most—how could I, Rebecca, possibly know the will of God in any situation, especially our tragedy? That’s when I learned to pray The Word, like my friend Carla. But to pray The Word like Carla, one must be saturated WITH The Word like Carla. And I was a sponge dying for life in the Scriptures! Praying The Word became a powerful safe place for me—the right place for me.

I wonder, how often do we approach the Lord and ask, “Lord, how do YOU want me to pray?” “How do YOU want me to pray for my friend, or how do YOU feel about this situation, so I can pray effectively?” “Holy Spirit, speak. I am listening.” If I love Jesus, and more importantly because HE LOVES ME, then should I not begin my prayer (after acknowledging His awesomeness and sovereignty), by asking, “What is on Your heart that I should pray?” It’s the pause before we pray. “The power of the pause,” as my friend Sharon would say.

I remember being approached to pray for someone soon after the crash—for someone who was diagnosed with a fatal illness. I was shocked that they trusted me because surely, they could see the condition of my heart. I felt they asked me to pray as though I now had some special connection to the Throne Room of God. (I confess, that was my crippled thinking at the time.) In a state of panic, I whispered, “Dear Lord, help me, because they are praying for healing as though it is Your will; when in fact, I know full well that no one knows the mind of God. How dare we presume to know what Your will is. We don’t know Your thoughts. We don’t know Your ways. Your “perfect will” might be to relieve this brother and take him home. You may very well want him home!” “HOME”—that thought came crashing down on me like an avalanche! A depiction our youngest daughter painted after God took our daughter Meagan, “Mom, maybe God took Meagan because He wanted her with Him. Why wouldn’t He?” Stopped in my tear-filled tracks! Yes! Why wouldn’t He? And my prayer life changed forever!

In Isaiah 55 it is written, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” The crash, “the valley of the shadow of death,” the loss, the trauma, the brokenness, the struggle, the grace, the miracles, the ever-reaching arms of Christ, the ever-forgiving heart of the Father, the leading of the Holy Spirit—all factors that began to re-shape the way I pray.

TRUTH…God does what He pleases, when He pleases, to/for whom He pleases. And He does what He chooses for His glory and our good. Whatever He chooses. When He chooses. Our Sovereign God will accomplish what He wills, when He wills, as in Psalm 135, “Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.” 

When will our petitions reflect what HE wants rather than our own desires? When will our hearts pray spontaneously, “THY will be done.” This is a continual battle, is it not? Shamefully, I admit that I fear His will or don’t always like the outcome of some of my prayers. But that is just evidence that I am still a huge work in progress. And things won’t change for any of you who are like me until we put ourselves daily in a position of surrender; a posture of relinquished prayer; a true and honest acceptance and assurance that He is God, and He holds ALL things in the palms of His mighty hands.

God used Romans 11 Doxology to put me “in my place” regularly when I dared to question why He allowed this tragedy to befall us. In fact, He used my friend and pastor’s wife Sue years ago to challenge me with this passage in an ever-so-gentle fashion. As she read the Doxology out loud, I retained it immediately as though she was writing it upon my heart. The sheer truth in it changed me forever! It put me in my “right place,” but it also gave me power! POWER to PRAY against the enemy and his schemes, and the POWER to STAND because My God is THE ONE TRUE GOD, and nothing or no one can touch me or mine unless HE chooses! By the grace of God, there is a crazy comfort in that TRUTH.

Romans 11—Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable His judgments,
    and His paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been His counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
For from Him and through Him and for Him are ALL things.
    To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

Oh, if our prayers would mirror the above passage! How much more effective our petitions would be if we acknowledged Him for Who He is, then asked Him how we should pray, and then listened even when the silence is awkward. Those prayers prompted by the Holy Spirit, I feel, would have an impact we never dreamed. Those are the prayers that birth miracles! Those prayers would be "out of the box" prayers—because God lives and thinks out of the box! Out of the box are where miracles happen! Out of the box is where I want to live.

O Lord, teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. As Meagan wrote in her Bible, “Lord God, may I no longer see with my own eyes, but with Yours! In all things!” And so, she does! May it be so for me and you here on earth and in heaven. May we no longer pray with tunnel vision but with YOUR ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE. May we pray Your heart. And then, please give us the strength to bear Your response and walk boldly in it. Speak, Lord, we are listening.

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NON-NEGOTIABLE

I was with a group of people recently when challenged with the question, “What is your non-negotiable?” The gentleman continued speaking but his question pierced my heart. Although I had multiple answers, one immediately jumped to the front. And though I kept silent in that moment, my heart pounded, and my thoughts raced back to the day God established this particular “non-negotiable” in my life journey.

It was 13 years ago. I remember when, where and why. At the time, I was the assistant to the CEO/Chairman of a large publishing company. I wanted to serve God with excellence while I also served this man of God—a man with high standards and high expectations, rightly so.

One day as I was praying, the thought came to me, “How can God equip me for the task at hand if I am first not in a position to receive.” Then I pictured my non-negotiable:  like a warrior would bow on one knee in allegiance to his king--bowing in surrender but also weapon in hand in a posture to rise quickly to do battle--I felt called to bow on one knee first thing every morning proclaiming, “My Lord, My God, I acknowledge You as my Lord and Savior.” This is not my time for prayer or petition. This is my time to declare my allegiance to My King as a child of God and as a warrior.

Within months, I felt led to get on one knee also before bed. I wanted to end my day as I began it—in surrender to Him. Leo quickly joined me and our non-negotiable was established in our hearts and we have not waivered a day since. We have stuck a stake in the ground, and it goes very deep. We don’t think about it. It simply and profoundly has become part of who we are, whether separate or together.

What is your non-negotiable? We all have them. And how deep is your stake in the ground? What is it in your life that you have anchored to the depths of your soul? When the enemy issues a blow that takes your breath away and stops your heart, what is it that you will not surrender? When darkness comes in like a thief and hides the sun, what is it that you have established (really, that HE has established) that is unshakable?

For me, the ultimate test came when our lives were turned upside down and our worst nightmare came true: a vehicle hit our car head on, and our daughter Meagan was killed instantly by my side. (I shudder as I write this as the sting is indescribable.) I was separated from my Meagan when the ambulance rushed me to the hospital despite my pleading to keep us together. After more trauma in the ER, it was determined I had seven broken ribs, my whole left side bruised, my bottom teeth knocked loose, etc., but I would survive. NOT the words I wanted to hear. None of these physical injuries mattered to me because the devastating loss was FAR more severe. I was in a nightmare!

The spiritual storm and chaos were tumultuous within my soul, YET when the sun came through my hospital window, I remembered my non-negotiable! I felt nothing but loss, I felt God had abandoned me, and my faith was in shambles; but my non-negotiable would not recede. It had already been set, established deep in the depths of my being! So, I asked Leo to help me out of the hospital bed and onto the hard, cold floor—one knee, in acknowledgement I whispered, “My Lord, My God.”

Through MY valley of the shadow of death, whether I feel like it or not, whether I am in a dark place of grief and confusion or a broken place of sorrow—one knee. So very many days and nights fighting for my sanity and my faith, all I can do is go back to what I knew—one knee! And the harder it is, the more I fight not to let the enemy rob it from me! No lies, no chaos, no darkness can take this from me! In the most treacherous of storms, this anchor had already been set!

And the Lord meets me in the darkness over and again, and inscribes His Word on my soul, as in:

Psalm 91:14-15

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges My Name.

He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.”

Psalm 55: 16-17

“But I call to God,

And the Lord saves me.

Evening, morning and noon

I cry out in distress,

And He hears my voice.”

So, I ask you, what is YOUR non-negotiable? To give God time each day to speak. To put your spouse first…period. To pray over your children every morning. To commit to love your unlovable neighbor as God has loved you. To be a consistent example of Christ to your world. To journal. To fast one day a week for the rest of your life.

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