Perfect Strangers

The other day while checking my email on my phone I saw that I had an email from Twitter showing the people I follow that recently posted something.  Normally I delete these emails right away but this time part of it caught my eye.  It said that Beth Moore had posted…so I clicked on it and it took me to her most recent blog post.  The title was For You In Your 20s and You Who Will Pray For Them.  “Hey!” I thought,  “I’m in my 20s!  I’m gonna read it.” 

I’m glad I did.  It was so great.  You should read it too.  Here’s a little excerpt:

“…That’s when I thought of all of you in his same generation who really do want to honor God and fulfill the purpose for which He planted your feet on this earth.

Here’s what I want to say to you: you really can maintain a pure and fiery heart toward Christ and His mission on earth but make no mistake: you will not do it by accident.

If you want a pure heart, you better be willing to fight for it. You will not keep it any other way.”

You can find the rest here: http://blog.lproof.org/2013/04/for-you-in-your-20s-and-you-who-will-pray-for-them.html

She talked about guarding your heart and many other wonderful things and then she said that anyone in their 20s who wanted prayer could write a request in the comment section and then asked others to claim a person by replying to their comment and saying you will pray for them. 

Well, I decided to go ahead and write down a prayer request.  After I wrote it I started reading some of the other requests.  Most that I read were from women very close to my age and as I read their requests I noticed that all of them (that I saw in that short time) mentioned their husbands.  “Well shoot!” I thought,  “Am I the only single lady on here?  Maybe I should reply to my own request saying that I’m SINGLE and maybe they should pray about that too!”  But the Holy Spirit must have been whispering to me at that moment because I didn’t.  I knew that wasn’t the point.  That’s wasn’t/isn’t what I want to focus on.  I’ve got more important things to worry about than my singleness, darn it!  Praise Jesus! Can I get an amen?  (If you’re single too, don’t worry.  I’m not always this content with my singleness.)

When I went back to her blog a few days later I saw that she had written another post asking for more people to pray because there were more people who were unaccounted for.  She also said not to worry; anyone who didn’t get a reply would be covered in prayer by her ministry team.  So I braced myself for that.  I searched for my request and when I found it I saw that I was one that had received no replies.  I knew this was a possibility but I still felt a pang of jealousy towards the people who had gotten replies…that was until a few days later when I checked again.

When I went back to check one last time I found my post and was happily surprised!  Someone was praying for me!  It was so sweet.  Just think of it.  Perfect strangers were listening to my story and praying…for me!  Oh what a blessing the body of Christ is!  But God hadn’t set out to just make me feel better about the fact that it took awhile for me to get a reply.  His blessing was much bigger than that.  Not just someone was praying for me.  I keep reading and reading and scrolling and scrolling.  And crying and crying.  Name after name.  Women telling me a bit of their story and committing to pray for me for 14 days…and for some, beyond that.  These women are amazing.  They offered their prayers and encouragement and Scripture to me, a perfect stranger!  There were 23 names in all.  23 beautiful women of God.  Oh how incredibly thankful I am for their prayers. 

Every time I think about it I want to bawl my eyes out.  God doesn’t want to just appease me, he wants to AMAZE me!  And he did by sending these 23 women to this post, to my comment, so that they would lift me up in prayer.  Lord I’m amazed by you!  Thank you for sending those perfect, strangers and sisters in Christ to me!