By Doug Creamer

            I love to pray and talk to my Father. Sometimes, it is a little more talking to Him, and if you know me, you know I like to talk. Sometimes it is listening. There is so much God wants to tell me, I have to learn to be quiet and listen. His love is so profound that I really don’t think we grasp how deeply He loves us. I love spending time with Him.

            I have a number of friends who are going through some big things in their lives. There are six specific friends who are getting prayed for multiple times a day. I think of them often and when I do, I lift them up in prayer. We don’t always know the power of our prayers or how they are impacting the individual on our hearts. I believe they make a huge difference, and for some people it is what gives them to strength to carry on.

            I think about when I have asked for prayer, I know the impact prayer has on my life. The prayers reinforce areas that are weak in me. The prayers bring health and healing to my body, mind, and spirit. The prayers and support help me to get up, brush myself off, and to begin walking again. We all fall down and we need each other to get back up.

            When I receive prayer I feel the power to persevere rise within me. Think about it, the enemy’s job is to accuse, hinder, and destroy our faith. When the battle is raging around us, we need our brothers and sisters to join our battle, strengthen our faith, and help us win the victory. The enemy doesn’t fight fair. He attacks when we are weak. He throws doubt, discouragement, fear, condemnation, or whatever he can find at us.

            Each Sunday I begin our worship service at church with a scripture. This past Sunday it came from Isaiah 43. It says in verse one, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!” Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit all know each one of us by our name. We are His! I know God watches over His people. He wants to help us win our battle. In fact, He will send us the resources of heaven to help us in our fight.

            Recently, I asked God to help me look over my life. What did He want to work on? One day I discovered Him digging around one of the foundational truths of the faith. “What are you looking there for?” I asked. He kept digging and exposing the area. I did some reading, praying, and even developed a statement of faith about this area. I read the statement daily for a period of time. Each day I felt the impact that simple statement was making in my life.

            BOOM! The attack came. That’s right, Jesus exposed this foundational area and the enemy made a full frontal attack on me. How could this foundational area be weak? I have loved and walked with the Lord for a long time. Back to reading the statement and more prayer. Meanwhile Jesus found the cracked bricks in my foundation and began to remove them. We had created better bricks and we were now in the process of putting them in place. Jesus stepped back, examined His work and then showed me the new and improved foundation.

            I am not sure the concrete is set yet so I think I might keep reading my statement. I have thanked the Lord for His work, but I asked Him why He did it. I read a little farther in Isaiah 43 and saw this, “Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you…” Imagine that, I am precious in the creator of the universe’s sight. When I walk into His presence, He honors me! He loves me. The God of all creation loves ME! He loves YOU, too! God wanted to fix something so it would NEVER again become an issue between us.

            I want to encourage you to be brave enough to ask God to look into your life and ask Him if there is anything that needs work. I had no idea this area needed work. I imagine this is going to open the door for further inspection of other areas of my life. That’s a good thing, right? The goal is to grow closer to God, to become mature in our faith. Growth and maturity are going to require work. I have a heart for God and want all He has for me, even if that means working on a simple foundational truth that needed repair.

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com