We can “go anywhere” through prayer

“Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah…” Col. 4:2 HCSB

I’LL NEVER FORGET 

I will never forget the most surprising void I felt in my life after Bud passed from this earth and entered the presence of the Lord (This month is the 12th anniversary of his passing). You might be surprised as well. 

While I most assuredly felt the tremendous emptiness created by his physical passing, this emptiness was something else altogether.

I knew he prayed for me on a regular basis, as I did for him. But I did not know how M.U.C.H. he prayed for me. The Lord had given me a strong man as my husband, which I wanted, but all his strength was not physical. He was a man of much prayer. 

I will also never forget one day when I went to be with him in the hospital. He was in ICU. As I approached his room, his nurse restrained me from going in saying, “You may want to wait a minute. He is praying. He is always praying.”

Now, back to my story.

Suddenly, one day, I felt an empty space in my life. And again, just as suddenly, I realized the emptiness I felt was the lack of his prayers. He could no longer pray for me. 

Why am I writing this? Because I want to draw our attention to the importance and power of our prayers for one another.

Last month, one of our sons in the Lord, Bhalchandra Kamble, our lead minister in India, came to visit me again. I am always very glad to see him. And he always comes to see me any time he comes to the US. You see, we are family. He was only 21 years old when we began to pour ourselves into him; teaching and training him for the work of the ministry God had called him to. Now, he is 54 and very successful in his calling. His sphere of influence has gone from local to regional to national, and now to international. I/We are very proud of him and his dedication to the Lord and his people.

Bhalchandra & Mary Ann at Amrit Indian Restaurant 

Our time together is always enjoyable. He does not come to see the sights. He comes to discuss the work and to pray for the work. We do go out to eat at our fine local Indian cuisine restaurant. But the rest of the time is focused on the work and prayer.

Over, and over again he will say, “Auntie, please keep on praying for me, the work and my family.” And I reassure him that I will not stop praying as he requests. I believe he, too, feels the power of the prayers being prayed in his behalf.

One of the most important things any of us can do is to pray. We don’t have to travel to pray, because prayer has no geographical boundaries. We can “go anywhere” through prayer.

My chosen verse for this newsletter touches on praying for one another, as well as praying for those whom God has chosen to be leaders in His body, the Church.

It is my prayer that all of us will do just that.

May all of us pray without ceasing.

Because there are over 4.4 billion people in the world who still need Jesus, I remain

Yours in missions,

Mary Ann Cassidy