A little over two years ago I went up for prayer after a New Years Eve service at my church (Indy Vineyard). At the time I felt like my
life was spiraling out of control. My
marriage was failing and not only was I dealing with a pending divorce that
I desperately didn’t want—but I was also dealing with the financial trauma of a
failing business (Havilah's Boutique). It was hard for me to
be hopeful in the midst of all of the pain. loss and rejection that I was
feeling. That evening--the pain was so overwhelming
that I almost sprung out of my seat at the end of the service when my Pastor, Randy Gooder, asked anyone needing
prayer to come forward. When I went forward and told the 2 prayer
team members about my pending divorce and why I wanted prayer, they were so
comforting. The prayer team members, a
married couple, let me know that they had almost gotten divorced themselves a
few years prior before God healed their marriage.
I wept as they prayed that God would give me peace and show me his
presence. Walking away from church that evening, I felt God’s hand on my life. However, I also felt like I was heard, cared for and
encouraged by the prayer team members.
It wasn’t long until I volunteered to be on my churches prayer ministry team
myself. Less than a year after I began
volunteering as a prayer team member, I had a young woman come up front and ask
for prayer about her own pending divorce.
Her husband had left her for another woman and she was feeling both scared and abandoned. It was awesome to be able to share with her
about God faithfully meeting me in that same place. I and another prayer team member prayed that God would make himself known to her in the midst of her pain. That God would give her the peace of knowing that He was holding her and her children safely in the palm of His hand. I also reminded her that regardless of how she felt at present, her heavenly father loved her
profoundly. As we were praying for the young woman --I could tell that God was really touching her heart that day. It was so reassuring to know that God can still use
us in our own brokenness to touch others with his love and mercy. Like it says in 2 Cor. 1:3-5, “Praise be to
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the
God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort
those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just
as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds
through Christ.”
