PP Weakness and a concert of prayer

Dear Prayer Partners,

     I'm dealing with weakness today. Not that I'm feeling weak right now, I'm thankful for the strength I have. In my inner being I am concerned with how long the BOP is going to shuffle papers before they let me go home. I wouldn't mind the time, the wait, but in the flesh I see my strength dissipating. I want my grandchildren to see me up and around. For three years they have come and visited me in a visiting center where all we could do is sit and talk. I am thinking about being with them when I have strength like I have now. I can walk, talk, and have fun, maybe go in a boat, ride in a canoe, build a campfire or even do some camping. I would like the strength to do that.

     I know that out of a possible thousand of you who follow my emails, there are many of you who are dealing with weakness as well, prayed long and hard and still struggle. In fact, most of you are very familiar with pain and loss and that's the reason you are so gracious to me in my circumstance. You have been so gracious in your emails and cards saying you are being ministered to by this. I pray that this will minister to you as you minister to me.

     Our daughter Lora said she prays so much she doesn't even knowhow to pray anymore. I know the feeling. I did some thinking about praying for strength using biblical texts. I want to end this email - or the next in a concert of prayer for all of us who partner in this prison experience. Before I do I want to dwell a little on weakness.

Romans 8:26 -  "Likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God".

   That is always a great comfort to me because I feel my prayers are so weak. Now regarding the weakness of my own flesh, in this case with cancer, I like: I Cor. 15:42 "So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is shown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body". If there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body.

     Believe me, when you're the first person to go to prison that you have ever known, like I am, you do a lot of thinking about how people see you, what do they think of you, how will you be remembered? Even this is something that is used by God. It's interesting for me to see how God used Satan as a messenger to Paul. II Cor 12:7-10 - "So to keep me from being conceited because of eye surpassing greatness of the revelation, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness! Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

     So the Lord has chosen me for a ministry, not because of my strength, but because of my weakness.
I Cor 1:26 -  "Consider your calling brothers; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish to the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world, to shame the strong; God chose what is despised not the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God--------Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

    So that was all about weakness. So should we desire weakness? I think not. The lesson for me as I read the above texts is not to desire weakness, but not to cover up weakness. The Lord doesn't work through us because of either our weakness or our strength. He wants to work through us just if we will be open vessels to his spirit, to his calling, if we will be open and honest about ourselves so we do not take credit for what the Lord does.

                                       Pray for strength

I Chronicles 16:11 -  "Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually."
Ps 84:5 "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, In whose heart are the highways to heaven.

Ps 105:4 "Seek the Lord and his strength, Seek his presence. Remember the wondrous works he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered." Yes, I must remember the wondrous things he has done, even as I have come to prison. I must remember, never forget the grace he has given. Remembering is an active thing, it is not passive. We are prone by nature to forget the great things God has done. We are prone in the flesh to not see the great works of God as being great. We are prone by the flesh to say, "Well, that was lucky".

Mk 12:29-30 "The Lord our God is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all  your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength". And I ask, "Who can do it?" That is why we need to ask God for that. Asking him to increase our capacity to love him the way he deserves and desires to be loved. Asking him to change this heart of mine that doesn't seem to find in itself the capacity to do that.

                                         A CONCERT OF PRAYER

When I hear from you I realize the great number that we are now, joined together in what seems like my story, but it is really God's story. I think of the hundreds of prayers given on my behalf from saints and friends who deal with their own set of circumstances, their own thorns in the flesh, their own prisons. My prison just happens to be a little more spectacular than most so I have an audience through email. I pray for you all often too, that these blessings of this connection will flow back to you, that your lives will be strengthened. Today I would like to do a concert of prayer. There is a favorite prayer of mine, prayed by Paul. I would like all of us to pray this prayer for all of us. Even if you are just a reader who gets this passed on to you through someone else, please include yourself as a partner in this prayer. Join hands at home and pray this for your children and grandchildren as well. God will be praised.

Eph. 3:14-19         Prayer for Spiritual Strength

     "For this reason I bow my knee before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit, in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you being grounded and rooted in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.

     Now, to him who is able to do much more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever, Amen.