“God, I thank you for this incredible woman who is giving her life to you today. We pray for healing in her health and blessings with her relationship with her family…”
I sat agreeing with a student who was praying for a patient at our medical clinic on a Ten Days Medical Missions trip last year. It had been an incredible week- we had seen about 200 patients, which was awesome, but more incredible was that number of testimonies from the trip was outstanding… Dozens of people had given their lives to God, several had been completely healed from medical problems, a dozen more from bondage in their life, and even our team and the local church were being renewed and healed and set on fire to see God do even more. The Pastor was gushing about how their neighbor who hated and plotted against the church for years had amazingly gotten saved, as well as about patients who were coming back just to “hang out” at the church and bringing their friends to be prayed for as well.
It was truly an amazing week. But while on one level I was totally thankful and so excited for the testimonies, on another level I was confused. In a single week on a missions trip I had personally been involved in about 30 miracles. But in five years working in the US, I had one single story. And I was a little bit confused as to why- what was the difference between work and missions?
See, I listen really carefully to God while I examine patients everywhere- I pray under my breath to see if there’s anything else God sees that I don’t. Sometimes He’ll tell me to ask something I wouldn’t have otherwise said. Or I’ll get really nervous suddenly- and that’s God’s way of telling me I am about to do something that isn’t expected- discuss an issue more, pray for someone, teach something, ask about their relationship with Christ…. I listen both in the US and when I go on missions trips, but on trips the number of opportunities multiplies exponentially. Obviously, there is a special anointing God gives us when we step out of our comfort zone to serve someone on missions, but does that mean our own regular lives and regular jobs can’t be anointed and filled with testimonies as well?
And finally, months later I realized what the main big difference was for me. It was prayer. Part of our training before trips includes 3 months of weekly prayer. Prayer for God to move, prayer for God to use us, prayer for God to change lives. But not once in my life have I ever spent 3 months praying for God to use me at my job. Maybe a day? Two if I was particularly excited about vocational ministry that week. But to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t pray all that much and I don’t pray all that well for something I regularly expect for God to do.
It’s not that I don’t see the power of prayer. It’s that at work, I am so used to doing things in my own strength and ability, but I wholeheartedly believe that I must walk into a missions trip on God’s strength and God’s ability. So I pray differently for a missions trip- more diligently, more often, more exasperatingly, mostly because I know if He doesn’t show up, I’ve got nothing. But at work- well, I already asked for that last week- didn’t God hear me the first time?
We were talking at Bible study the other week about how long the Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt prayed. Do you remember? Over 400 years. 400 years of asking, and begging, and fearing, and believing for more. And prayer in the Bible is described at times like a woman who is pregnant having labor pains over something that is precious and necessary (Isaiah 26:16-18). But the Bible says, “God heard them crying out.” Not because they were so frustrated or living their lives perfectly or whatever. But because they were over “fixing it themselves” and they were fervently and humbly aware of their need for God to intervene. Their need for God to show up and show out. Their need for God to change their situation into something greater. Their need for God to make the impossible become possible.
Are you dedicated to asking and believing God to do something like that at your workplace this week, this month, this year? And if not, what will it take for you to lay down your own strategies, pick up your sword, and pray?
“He is not impressed by the strength of a horse; He does not value the power of a man. The Lord values those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His faithful love.” Psalms 147:10-11