SOS

During some of my darkest times over this past year, my dwindling hope would be restored when God would use people to speak truth into my life. One Sunday several months ago, a young woman allowed God to use her as a messenger of encouragement. You see, I had spent the week before questioning if God was hearing me if He cared about my problems and wondering if what I was going through mattered to Him. Nothing was changing in my situation despite my endless cries for a breakthrough to happen. So that brings us to the Sunday I mentioned earlier when this amazing young woman walked past me, came to a halt, turned around and came back to me and said, “Rebecca, Can I pray for you?” This young woman had no idea of what I was going through, no idea of my struggles, and yet she listened to the stirring of the Spirit that I could use prayer. In the middle of her prayer, she stopped and said, “God wants me to tell you that He exists.” She explained that those words seemed strange to be saying to someone who works in a church, but those words kept repeating for her, so she needed to be sure to share. Those words “God wants you to know He exists” hit me at the depths of my soul. It was the confirmation I had been looking for. That encounter renewed my strength to continue to hold on to hope.

That young woman could have kept walk past me that day, and she could have continued on her day none the wiser of how desperately I needed to hear those encouraging words. And when she did stop to pray for me, she didn’t need me to share my whole life story for her to pray for me accurately. Full disclosure isn’t required to pray for someone, God knows, and that is enough. It really was accurate when it was said, “we don’t pray to tell God how big our problems are, but instead we pray to tell our problems how big our God is.”

It can be easy to refrain from asking for prayer when you are going through a tough season, as just the thought of rehashing all that we are going through can cause us to clam up. Discouragingly, leaving us feeling alone and depleted. We all need people in our lives who don’t need to know every detail of the battle we face to pray for us. I call these my SOS friends. God has blessed me with a fantastic tribe who doesn’t even need me to spell out all that is happening at the moment but will immediately go into prayer when I send out the signal that I need support. A simple text of NSGT (Not so good today) or SOS or PRAY can be sent, and I know those friends/family will bring my name before the throne of God.

We all need a tribe like that in our lives, but more importantly, we also need to BE those praying friends too. Max Lucado once said, “You are never more like Jesus than when you pray for others.” Leaving room in our lives for God to use us to encourage one another, whether it be that we are trusted SOS friends or to be like that young woman, and we don’t just keep walking by.

“Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer.” Romans 12:12.

“When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:12.

Father God, Thank you that we can bring prayer requests before You with little or no information required because You know it all already. Thank you for the times you use us to speak encouragement to others even if we don’t know all the details. Thank you for community. Satan would like nothing more than for us to refrain from reaching out for help and support in our dark times. Please help us remember that there are people out there who You long to use as part of our SOS tribes. May we stand firm in knowing that You already know what we are going through and join together to tell our problems how incredibly big YOU are. 

Amen!