Time To Pray For Men

My dear friends:

I greet you with blessings from God above!

For some time now, I have been pondering on whether God will allow my fingers to write what I have been thinking about, praying about, and talking about to some of you. As I started my reading of the Word to see which direction God wanted me to go in for today's message, I got the confirmation for today's message.

Proverbs Chapter 24, verses 3-4 says "It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong. It takes knowledge to fill a home with rare and beautiful treasures." My friends, I want to be wise like Solomon, I want to have a good family, I want to proclaim "as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Wisdom brings understanding and patience and forgiveness and love. I certainly do not want to be an old fool. So, to be obedient in my walk with Christ, I need to ask you to start praying for men. As of today, if you haven't already been doing so, let us begin to pray in sincerity for the men in our lives and in the lives of our children. Let us ask God to intercede on behalf of men who are our husbands; our earthly fathers; our sons; our childrens' fathers; our grandfathers; our uncles; our male cousins; our nephews. My friends, please let us begin to pray in true form for men. You will agree with me that as women, we are so quick to beat them down, but slow to lift them up. We can cut them with the words like a sharp knife, but we find it hard to give them words of encouragement. I am guilty of doing the beat down of men, I am guilty, but I ask God for forgiveness; I ask God to please let me love, please let me forgive, please give me the courage to pray for men. I will tell you I have been trying for a few months now, with the encouragement of one of my sisters, to pray sincerely for all the men in my life. You see, I now know that it is not about me, but it is about God. I have a son who loves his daddy with all his heart and I realize that I must love this man as my brother in Christ if I proclaim to be a follower of Jesus and also because my son loves him. It is hard to pray for people who have beaten you down, but as true disciples, we must take example from Paul, who was a true servant of Jesus Christ. Paul had physical and emotional scars from being a true servant of Jesus, Paul was a servant who loved his friends and his enemies. In Paul's letter to the young preacher, Timothy, he wrote, "whoever does not care for his own relatives, especially his own family members, has turned against the faith and is worse than someone who does not believe in God." (1 Timothy 5:8) That is certainly a harsh statement from Paul. But, one of the things I admire about Paul is that he spoke the truth, he spoke the honest truth, he didn't had time to sugarcoat anything.

My friends, as of today, let us begin to start praying for the men in our lives, but especially for the men in our children's lives. In fact, just let us pray for all men, all over the world. I have brothers, my father, uncle, cousins, nephews all living in Belize, please just pray for them, please lift them up in your prayers. I will be praying for the men in your lives, you pray for the men in my life.

St. Francis of Assisi prayer has come to my mind. St. Francis prayed, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand;to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." My friends, if someone wasn't praying for us, where would we be today? Let us forget about ourselves for a moment and let us pray for the men whom we have been putting down with our words and actions. Friends, let us begin to speak positive things over these men lives; if they are living in darkness, let us get in agreement with one another and ask God to bind up that darkness, whatever it may be. Friends, call it out, call it out to the Lord in prayer, whatever it is, if he is abusing you with words, call his name and ask God to bind up his mouth; if he is cheating on you; ask the Lord to bind up that cheating behavior; ask God to open his heart and his mind; if he is using drugs; ask the Lord to bring an intervention; if he is drinking, ask God to bring an intervention; friends, whatever it is, just let us get in agreement and ask God to intervene on our behalf; ask God to bind up that darkness in Jesus' precious name.

Now, remember, as followers of Christ, we must pray, we must pray continually and believing that God will answer our prayers. God may not answer our prayers right away, but do not give up, keep praying, keep praying, morning, noon, and night. Pray in the car, pray while sitting on your porch, pray in the shower, pray on the toilet, pray, pray, pray. Whatever you do, pray. My friends, I cannot emphasize enough to you the importance of praying. I am a witness of what prayers can do, I am living witness, I had parents and sisters who prayed morning, noon and night for me, and I thank God for them because He has surely turned me around. Thank you Lord.

My friends, be blessed and know that God has everything under control; your prayer is already answered, but you must believe; when you take it to the Lord in prayer, you just leave it with God. Thank you Father, thank you Lord.

Ta ta,
Therese from Belize