The request I had received was simple. Pray for believers in a particular land, where the political situation is unstable, asking the Lord to use the church to bring real peace to the nation. My heart was immediately connected, as this is certainly God’s will for any nation – to bring His peace through His body. The question was simple. What was I to pray for these specific brothers and sisters to fulfill His plan in their nation?
As I began to pray, my thoughts turned to what would hinder the believers in this call. No matter what situation I considered, fear was the root problem. Fear of the unsettled condition of their government and what might happen with it. Fear of what could happen to Christians in any upheavals that might come. Fear of change. Fear of standing out now as a follower of Christ in any way, because of possible future persecution. Fear of not being able to earn a living, provide a home, food, clothing, and school for the family. Fear of . . .
As soon as fear was exposed, my prayers were for the body to experience the perfect love of God surrounding them, enveloping them. Our enemy works hard to keep our focus on fear (forgetting God’s love), so he can keep us from being effective in our walk with Christ. But the perfect love of God casts out all fear! (1 John 4:18) God’s love is bigger than anything fear can bring. I declared in prayer that my brothers and sisters would say with their own mouths that God has not given them a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, and power, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). In the spirit, I saw them beginning to stand taller and bolder than before, as they were reminded that the Greater One Who loves them lives in them. (1 John 4:4)
While I prayed for God’s perfect love to be made known to them, however, a condemning voice in my head was saying, “That’s not enough! You need to pray more than just that.” This lie was to convince me I wasn’t really praying for the church to bring peace to their nation. At that moment, I could have argued with the voice of condemnation, explaining that the body of Christ will know personal peace again when out of fear’s grasp, and then they will bring it to their nation. Instead, my spirit man rose up within me and I declared aloud, “Yes it is enough! The perfect love of God does cast out all fear. That’s what Holy Spirit gave me to pray for them. It really is that simple!”
It seems the Lord wanted to reiterate last month’s Prayer Nugget – praying from our seated position with Him in Christ – using a current life example. In my rightful and proper place with Him, I didn’t have to pray about all the detailed needs and answers. Mine was simply to see what Abba Daddy showed me, and pray from there. Once that was done, my part was complete, no matter what the “not enough” or “too simple” voices tried to make me believe. Prayer doesn’t have to be long or hard to be effective. It just needs to be prayed from the right position, because it really is that simple!
© Copyright 2010 Kay V. Stocking
