When Love is Bold Enough to Pray

In community... never be surprised by what is literally just around the corner. Recently I met someone who has followed what I’ve written over the past couple of years, and it turns out we study at the same seminary. Having shared half a dozen conversations with her over the past six months, it was clear there was some commonality in both our experience and philosophies of life.

So it was no surprise to be pulled away in the order that she might pray for me and my family. It was a wonderful Spirit-led and prophetic prayer. I was grateful to be prayed for, just as she was grateful to have followed the Spirit’s leading.

This event got me thinking; when Love is bold, and bold enough to pray, it rips down barriers, and community comes to be.

When someone has had their heart tugged by the Holy Spirit, and they go with that leading, not being talked out of it, their obedience stands to be blessed in the heavenly realms. And although some people, sometimes, may resist being prayed for, to know we have followed the Spirit’s leading should be enough to experience such peace.

It is such an important thing to be not only a giver of love, but also to be a recipient. As a pastor, the default is to give love, but there is also the privilege of modelling how to receive love; to be thankful for the thoughtfulness and compassion of others.

To be prayed for in the abovementioned way was a gift I could only receive at that given time and in that space. What was said in that prayer, and how it was said, down to the exact circumstance, was all God-led, God-filtered, God-energised, and God-approved.

We must thank God for the obedience of the saints. For anyone to truly obey God is a miracle in itself; the Lord has become Lord and King over a decision, an action, a life. And obedience is a string of miracles, as the believer shelves their flesh in order to wear the Spirit.

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Oh saint of belief,

Your gift is relief,

To this saint’s tired old bones.

What a wonder it’s been,

The Spirit we’ve seen,

Who’s unseated us from our thrones.

Again, what a miracle it is that we are unseated from the thrones of our hearts, where God’s Spirit is given that rightful place. Prayer does all this.

Prayer transacts as love. It builds. It gives. It builds community.

You may never know just how important prayer is; until you reach heaven.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.

Photo Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Robert Kohlhuber