Join my cause

I know that I have already entertained or perhaps bored you once today but sometimes a combination of caffeine and the Holy Spirit send my brain into overload. And since I don’t want to miss an opportunity to share with you what’s inside my brain and more importantly inside my heart; I am going for round two today.  At some point this afternoon, I sent out a text message to all of my closest friends asking for prayer for a member of my family who is staring cancer right in the face. I completely dislike sending group texts because I feel that they are so impersonal but I wanted as many prayers as possible. Within minutes, I received many responses from people agreeing to pray for my family. I was grateful and overwhelmed by the timely responses and genuine support I had received.  More than the kind words, I was drawn to the fact that over half of my responses included the words “I am in”.  My friends were referring to my invite via text to join my prayer bandwagon and claim victory over cancer not only for my loved one but for everyone affected by the disease I have grown to hate.  Thanks to technology, I was able to communicate with my closest friends of all time and more importantly I was able to recruit individuals to jump on my bandwagon of prayer.

Tonight at my bible study we were sharing with each other our prayer requests. (Of course I took advantage of an opportunity to recruit more people to my “Death to Cancer” wagon) When it was my turn, I said, “I have a prayer/faith request.” I explained that I needed prayer but not just any prayer. I wanted prayers of complete healing and complete victory for my loved ones life.  After a moment of awkward silence (I only know 1 person in my bible study and my knowledge of the other women is limited to our weekly conversations), a long time survivor of breast cancer said, “I had a mammogram this week and I have a suspicious mass.”  She needed a reaffirmation that she has complete victory in Christ and that cancer is simply just a word to her.  Through my prayer request I may have recruited more people to my bandwagon but because of my faith in God, I recruited a woman faced with an unknown mass back to the joy of victory in Christ.  It’s easy to recruit others for a personal gain or for a good cause but how many times do we stand up for the only man worth fighting for? Are you living out your faith in your own life? Are you courageous enough to share your faith with others? Or are you taking pride in recruiting others for earthly gains? If we don’t take a stand for God’s kingdom and use our stories, our trials, our heartaches, our joy, and our victories to reach out to others then we are wasting every opportunity given to us to truly impact others’ lives and lead others to accept Christ as their Savior. As Christians we can be confident that we have victory in ALL things with Christ and our faith sustains us when the evils of this world attack us. We must strive to allow others to not only see this but believe this for their lives as well.

 I will always take a stand with others to claim victory over cancer and I will always be the driver (and recruiter) of the prayer bandwagon. But I am not interested in the number of “I am in” responses I get for my personal gains but instead for the number of people who say “I am in”  and claim victory in Christ.

Verse to remember:  1 John 5:4-5 4 For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the son of God.