MY YELLOW SHARPIE

To study and “share” Shakespeare (“Yes! You WILL appreciate Shakespeare!”) was one of my favorite parts of teaching high school literature (Sherry knows that!). There have been periods in my life, and maybe yours, when I could quote with heartfelt meaning part of his SONNET 29:

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries...

During some difficult periods of my “journey,” I was so sure Heaven was “deaf” to my “bootless cries.” God was not hearing me. Maybe that is how you feel today.  These doubts did not always disappear quickly, even though, “Of course, the Lord was there! Of course, I knew He was!” How???

Some of you have heard me talk about what a blessing my prayer journal has been to me. Several years ago, before I started a journal with my requests, I had a hodgepodge way of keeping track of requests...random lists, 3 x 5 cards, my memoryJ. The hard part was when a friend thanked me for praying and I wasn’t sure what the request had been!

God’s Word has to be the foundation of our prayer life. In Matthew 18:1, Jesus told the disciples to always pray and “not give up.” Why should we follow this directive? Because Hebrews 4:14 tells us: “We have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God,” And verse 16: “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

A little added thought...What if Jesus had died on the cross, had arisen from the grave and had decided to build a church in Jerusalem? He HAD to ascend to the Father to complete his ministry for us. There He is TODAY, on the right hand of the Father, waiting to hear our heart cries so He can take them to the Father for us!! Wow!

My dad was such a prayer warrior that I realized one day after he was gone: “Maylou, you had better get serious about your prayer life.”

This might not work for all but...My journal is very simple...I just list things as they come to me...not in categories. # 2 might be my son David’s job while # 370 might be another request for him. I date each one when I jot it in. So it is really a diary of my requests over the years and how God has answered them.

Where does the YELLOW SHARPIE come in? As I pray almost daily for every request, I mark over the request when it is answered with my sharpie and also write “ans.” My answer might be “no” or “yes.” Many I have prayed about for over 25 years before they were answered. Some are still unanswered.

We need to be serious about praying for others. We want others to see, through our prayers, that as Isaiah 4:20 states (one of my favorite verses) “That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this.”

 --Maylou Holladay