Cross My Heart Ministry

If you’ve prayed about something –or someone—for years and seem to see no results, you might understand why I compare prayer to riding a stationary bicycle.  We’re pedaling hard, but we seem to be getting nowhere.

In Luke 18, Jesus taught His disciples about prayer using the Parable of the Persistent Widow.  Though I have no desire to be a widow (I’ve made my husband promise to let me go to Jesus first), I would love to be described as persistent.  (Some might say that’s one thing I could go ahead and check off my bucket list.)

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1

Jesus provides two words of instruction regarding prayer in Luke 18:1:

1. Always pray
2. Not give up

At first glance, we might assume that Jesus is simply repeating Himself for added emphasis.  Aren’t both points saying essentially the same thing using different words?  I thought so, too, until I checked in with our kind and gentle teacher.  The Holy Spirit brought some added illumination to me as I pondered and prayed.

Always Pray

This doesn’t suggest a morning or evening prayer, but a consistent walking (or pedaling) in a spirit of prayer.  I think of it as a continual conversation with my Lord.  This is not just prayer-walking or prayer-pedaling, it is prayer living.  It challenges me to redeem my thought life—to be praying as I go through my day.  Mindless tasks such as loading the dishwasher, folding the laundry, or driving to pick up a child can be transformed into time to pray for those I love, pray for guidance for myself, and pray that God is glorified in it all.  I’m finding that I’m really not “too busy to pray.”

As I send up those “arrow prayers” to Jesus, I find that He is faithful to stir up my heart and mind.  He provides an appropriate response to others.  He provides practical solutions to the decisions I need to make: how to discipline a child, how to organize my day, how to remedy a sticky situation.

A woman of God leans into God for the big, as well as the small, decisions, responses, and actions that make up her day to day life.

To always pray also suggests that I must keep coming back to God with the same request. If you are like me, there is something or someone you have prayed about for years, having little faith that God will bring about change.  It is easy for a prayer to become a mindless chant, a repeated refrain—words uttered by our mouths, but having no connection to our hearts.

Lord, reveal those prayers that my mouth speaks, but my heart does not echo.  Stir up my heart to ask – and to keep asking –with passion and pleading, with faith and focus. Delight me, surprise me, bless me with Your answers in Your way and in Your perfect time.

Not give up

The rules of courtesy, human pride, and self-consciousness lead many of us to ask once…perhaps twice.  Pride, self, and human methods are cast aside as a woman of God –a true believer and follower of Christ – recklessly, wholeheartedly, repeatedly casts her burden upon the Lord.  To ask, to keep asking, to never give up says much about her faith, her expectant heart, and her confidence in God.

In the parable found in Luke 18, the persistent widow keep coming to the judge “who neither feared God nor cared about men.”  She finally wore him down and he doled out justice in her case.  If this ungodly judge would finally answer, how much more can we expect our holy, kind, and perfect God to answer our pleas?

To give up is human; it is expected; it is logical.  But being a woman of God means that I am called to walk in the opposite spirit—to do the unexpected and to sometimes do what the world sees as illogical.  To keep asking is divine, counter-cultural, and perhaps embarrassing.  It is also the most powerful, Christ-honoring, and humbling action we can take.

To ask and to keep asking demonstrates my inability to fix what is broken.  It reveals my complete dependence upon Him who is able.

God, in what area (relational, medical, or financial), for what person or situation, for what decision, do I need to “not give up?”  Stir up my heart to keep pedaling.  As I wait for the answer, teach me patience and perseverance.  Teach me humility and hope.  Enable me to depend upon you.  Build my trust.  Give me an expectant heart.  Change me into a woman of great faith.

The Holy Spirit has reminded me today to not give up in these specific areas:

• Lydia to be healed of juvenile diabetes
• The salvation of extended family members
• Committed Christian spouses for each of my children

Each of these requests float on and off my prayer list.  They keep resurfacing, as other prayers are answered and then forgotten.  Each request may not bring an answer today or tomorrow or next week, but that does not change my responsibility to keep praying.  Because of the power found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope floats to the surface along with these on-going requests.

As you and I keep prayer-pedaling, we might find we are actually getting somewhere after all.

With all glory to Jesus—the ultimate life preserver and eternal life-saver!

Photo Attribution: Posted with permission from Dawn Olsen, http://theloveofeloquence.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

Copyright 2011 Laura Macfarlan

If Mapquest is correct, there are 3921 miles between Siloam Springs, Arkansas and Kenai, Alaska.  Other than both being “A” states, I can think of little that the two places have in common.  However, much of going on mission there has changed the way I will live on mission here.

Along with nine other women, I was blessed to be part of the first FBC Heart Life Women’s Ministry mission team.  We served with Brenda Crim and Alaska Missions during Salmon Frenzy on the Kenai Peninsula.  Alaska residents come to dip net salmon from the Kenai River and we were there to serve them.  Most of our team operated a Kids Camp – delighting the kids with stories, skits, crafts, and music – all to teach them about Jesus.

I helped to prepare and serve about 1200 hot dogs each day, give away free water bottles and hot chocolate, and to walk the beach picking up trash.  I loved every minute.  Giving something away for free opens up the hearts of those you get to speak with.

My assignment – physically and spiritually – for the week was to be a servant.  God, as always, prepared and equipped me for what He called me to do.

This verse from Mark 9:35 just “happened” to show up in my morning Bible reading while in Alaska:

…If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.

Mark 10:44-45 hammered it in again:

and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I wasn’t in charge of anything in Alaska—I was assigned the role of servant.  In Arkansas I often find myself in a leadership role.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  Servant leadership is a phrase that has taken on cliché status in its overuse, but it became more than a Christian buzz word for me last week.  Being a servant is more than merely performing tasks.  It is also a choice, an attitude, and a decision to walk in obedience.

I also learned a lot about my own inhibitions.  There’s something about talking to people you will most likely never see again that makes it totally okay to ask, “Is there anything I can pray about for you?”  Walking along the beach and praying for people as you go opens the eyes of one’s heart to see people as God sees them – as just simply people.  Meeting people and telling them I had traveled from Arkansas to deliver them that hot dog opened up the lines of the communication.  Giving away something free earned me the right to ask, “How’s the fishing going today?”  (Another Alaska and Arkansas commonality:  fishermen from both states have the-one-that-got-away stories.)

Suddenly, I am looking at people differently.  Seeing them as folks who need to know that Jesus loved them and died for them makes it much easier for me to look for opportunities to bring Jesus into the conversation.  I want to be wise.  I want to walk in wisdom.  Sticking my hand out and saying flippantly, “Hey, man – Jesus loves you!” might have me labeled a religious kook.  I don’t want to defame the name of Jesus or make it difficult for the next person who might come along and water the seed God lets me plant.  But I do want to walk in obedience.  For too long I’ve viewed evangelism as if I’m “selling” something someone doesn’t want instead of telling them about something totally free that they desperately need.

In Alaska, I learned to be free – free of anxiety and fear about “what will people think?”  I learned to naturally and honestly engage in conversation.  I was enabled and empowered to represent my Lord.  I want to live that way from here on.  I pray that my AA (After Alaska) life stands in sharp contrast to my BA (Before Alaska) life.

I went ON mission to Alaska.  My assignment now is to LIVE on mission in Arkansas.

Copyright 2011 Laura Macfarlan

A happy heart makes the face cheerful…
(Proverbs 15:13)

On this Easter Monday, join me in smiling because HE LIVES!  Regardless of the challenges and hard things this day holds, my face can smile because my heart is happy with the truth that my Savior is alive.  Death could not hold Him.  The grave could not keep Him.  And today, my heart is filled with Him.

Jesus said that “…out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”  The verse above from Proverbs also teaches us that out of the overflow of the heart, the face smiles.

Today you and I may face difficult things, hard situations, and challenging relationships.  None of these offer anything to smile about.  But as we face each of these with the assurance that He lives and that He abides in us, we can allow our hearts to be happy, and our joy to overflow from our hearts and onto our faces.

Go ahead – smile! Let the joy of JESUS ooze out of you on this Resurrection Monday.  He lives!  And because He lives – we can live too.

Now that’s something to smile about.

Graphics attribution: https://delfigunardy.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/smile/

Copyright 2011 Laura Macfarlan

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…”  Isaiah 55:1a

When we’re really thirsty, nothing quenches, satisfies, and refreshes like water.  After an afternoon of yard work, an hour on the treadmill, or a hike in the woods, our body craves what it needs most:  water.

Think back to the last time you were hot and thirsty.  Did milk, a soft drink, or a cup of hot coffee offer any appeal?  Of course, not.   Our dehydrated body craves water alone to quench its thirst.  Nothing else will do.

I was jolted awake from a sound sleep last week by a painful charley horse in my calf muscle.  Like punching the accelerator to move from zero to sixty in ten seconds, the RPM’s on my pain meter spiked as I screamed out in pain…loudly.  If you’ve ever had a charley horse, you know it’s one of those paralyzing kinds of pain.  Do I point my toes and try to stretch it out, just try to be still, or massage the muscle with gusto.

Of course, my dear hubby was also startled awake and into action –experiencing it vicariously with me, as a good husband should.  The I’ll-fix-it part of his maleness kicked in, as he began to massage my calf and, thankfully, in a span of seconds-that-felt-like-hours (people always say that, but with a Charlie horse it’s more than a cliché), the pain subsided from a twelve on a scale of ten to around a four.  Still hurting, but no longer demanding that the neighbors next door know how much, I marveled at the blessing that comes when the pain abates.

Hurting not enough to scream but too much to sleep, I hauled myself out of bed and arrived early for my daily appointment with Jesus.  My calf was sore, aching dully, and I was even limping a little.  Our 16-year-old Luke, my sole fellow family member of the early riser’s club, joined me a bit later.  When I asked if I had awakened him with my screaming and shared about my hurting muscles, he wisely reminded me that muscle spasms and tightness are often the result of dehydration.  Then he cocked his head sidewise, raised one eyebrow, and allowed his blue eyes to looking penetrating and serious, as he asked in his best Dr. Luke voice, “Mom, have you been drinking enough water?”

“Of course, I have!” I responded a little too quickly, as I also quickly remembered meeting a friend for lunch the day before and forgoing my usual order of water with lemon for a diet soft drink, followed by at least one refill.  And I had felt so good about ordering the salad, too.

I wrinkled my nose and then returned to my Bible study.  Suddenly “come thirsty” had taken on a whole new meaning.  Just as a lack of water had caused my physical body to knot up, experience pain, and interrupt normal life, so also does discomfort and pain come when we are spiritually dehydrated.

If life has lost its color, relationships are strained, or you just feel out of sorts, perhaps you are spiritually dehydrated.  Rather than looking for a complex solution such as therapy or counseling, the first check should be –am I thirsty?  Have I neglected that daily drink from the well, the daily meeting with Jesus—our source of living water.

My prayer for today:

Jesus, I come to you thirsty.  Keep me thirsting for you.  Let my thirst for your Word never be quenched completely.  Just as I cannot drink all the water I need for the week on Sunday and then be set for the week, so I need to keep coming to you every single day for refilling.

As you pour into me, I pray that I would be filled to overflowing –and that your love and your truth would splash out on those all around me.  I cannot pour out of an empty pitcher.

Keep me spiritually hydrated.  Use those spiritual muscle spasms to remind me that I may be in need of a drink from the living water.

Thank you, Father, that your well never runs dry.

Copyright 2011 Laura Macfarlan