I was reminded of this by something LostSheep said in shoutbox about encouragement.
About 25 years ago, we had a "Lay Renewal Weekend" at our Church. Part of the preparation was a 24 hour prayer chain, where people would sign up to come to the Church and pray for a 1 hour time slot for 24 consecutive hours leading up to the weekend. In the designated prayer room was a journal where you would write your thoughts, and read those of the people who had written before you. As the "prayer chain" went on through the night, many people would read what the first people wrote, and comment in the margins, or add some thoughts about previous comments to their own comments. It was a great experience.
One of the purposes of this was to encourage people to keep and maintain their own prayer journals. And one of the purposes of that was the fact that many times we have "answers to prayer", but we forgot we even prayed about that matter. So, looking back, you can read your prayer requests, and often realize, "wow, that's been handled!"
So, about 5 years after our first Lay Renewal Weekend, members of the Church observed that we had a lot of new people since the last one, and maybe we should do that again. Debbie was the lady who had done a lot of the planning of this, and she was the one who put together the prayer journal and prepared the "prayer room". She volunteered to do that again.
I mentioned to the Church the fact that the Prayer Journal was a very powerful part of our previous Lay Renewal Weekend, and I reminded them that we can often look back at things we wrote, and see that God answered prayers. I looked at Debbie sitting there in the congregation - I was going to explain that she had overseen our Prayer efforts last time, and would be doing so again. But Debbie was sitting there sobbing. I paused a minute, then asked, "Are you OK?" She responded, "Can I say something?" I said, "sure".
She came up to the front to stand with me, and with tears coming down her cheeks, she said "I found our prayer journal from the last Lay Renewal Weekend, and I just sat down and began reading it". (more tears) She said, I had totally forgotten that I had written in that Prayer Journal that I would love to see my husband come to know Jesus as his Savior, and be active with me in Church."
Dean, her husband, had been sitting next to her when she got up to speak. Dean had, indeed, come to know Jesus as Savior, and was serving as a Deacon in our Church, totally committed to Christ and serving Him.
Debbie continued, "I praise God for my husband, and how much he has grown in the Lord since being saved, but I totally forgot that I had written that prayer request, and that the whole church had joined me in praying for him, and (pointing to Dean) THERE HE IS!"
About 25 years ago, we had a "Lay Renewal Weekend" at our Church. Part of the preparation was a 24 hour prayer chain, where people would sign up to come to the Church and pray for a 1 hour time slot for 24 consecutive hours leading up to the weekend. In the designated prayer room was a journal where you would write your thoughts, and read those of the people who had written before you. As the "prayer chain" went on through the night, many people would read what the first people wrote, and comment in the margins, or add some thoughts about previous comments to their own comments. It was a great experience.
One of the purposes of this was to encourage people to keep and maintain their own prayer journals. And one of the purposes of that was the fact that many times we have "answers to prayer", but we forgot we even prayed about that matter. So, looking back, you can read your prayer requests, and often realize, "wow, that's been handled!"
So, about 5 years after our first Lay Renewal Weekend, members of the Church observed that we had a lot of new people since the last one, and maybe we should do that again. Debbie was the lady who had done a lot of the planning of this, and she was the one who put together the prayer journal and prepared the "prayer room". She volunteered to do that again.
I mentioned to the Church the fact that the Prayer Journal was a very powerful part of our previous Lay Renewal Weekend, and I reminded them that we can often look back at things we wrote, and see that God answered prayers. I looked at Debbie sitting there in the congregation - I was going to explain that she had overseen our Prayer efforts last time, and would be doing so again. But Debbie was sitting there sobbing. I paused a minute, then asked, "Are you OK?" She responded, "Can I say something?" I said, "sure".
She came up to the front to stand with me, and with tears coming down her cheeks, she said "I found our prayer journal from the last Lay Renewal Weekend, and I just sat down and began reading it". (more tears) She said, I had totally forgotten that I had written in that Prayer Journal that I would love to see my husband come to know Jesus as his Savior, and be active with me in Church."
Dean, her husband, had been sitting next to her when she got up to speak. Dean had, indeed, come to know Jesus as Savior, and was serving as a Deacon in our Church, totally committed to Christ and serving Him.
Debbie continued, "I praise God for my husband, and how much he has grown in the Lord since being saved, but I totally forgot that I had written that prayer request, and that the whole church had joined me in praying for him, and (pointing to Dean) THERE HE IS!"
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