A Day of Prayer
by Kelli Hedding, Copyright September 2, 2008, all rights reserved. 397 views
Once upon a time on the Mediterranean Sea a ship set sail. It was a missionary ship. After two and a half long years of hard work, struggle and waiting in a little shipyard in former Yugoslavia the ship was finally ready to sail. The day she sailed was a miracle in itself. But this story is about what happened a few days later.
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| From Misc Images |
A heaviness was settling over the ship’s crew. I could feel it in the atmosphere. I could feel it in my own heart; there was a heaviness that I could not shake. I did not know what was going on.
Our ship was stuck at anchor off the coast of Malta. We were waiting for fuel; we were on our third day of waiting for fuel. Weather was keeping the bunker barge from coming alongside our ship.
I had noticed the heaviness gradually settling over the ships crew. Our captain was frustrated. I had never seen him frustrated before. The hop in his step had disappeared and he seemed out of sorts.
On that third day of waiting the talk about the need for prayer increased – especially among the veterans of the Faith. I felt strongly the call to prayer. Everyone seemed to sense the same thing; it seemed as if praying was going on everywhere.
I found myself praying while I worked in the morning. During my lunch break I lay outside on the deck and prayed. Later I prayed for 40 minutes with my friend Amanda. Throughout the afternoon as I worked I still felt the urge to pray and did. When dinner was over I prayed again with Amanda and also my friend Jana. Then the three of us joined the rest of the ship’s crew for worship and prayer.
Our prayers were not simply asking for fuel for our ship. Our prayers were for each other. Our prayers were seeking God. Like one of my friends once told me:
“Kelli, God just wants you.”
So that is what we were doing. We were giving God our hearts; pouring them out to Him; praying for our friends, for our families, for our leaders, for our hurts, for our countries.
As the evening of prayer and worship came to a close the urgency for prayer lifted. I stuck around in the dining room enjoying the relief that seemed to have come over the ships company. There was real joy in the air again.
As I sat and joked with friends we saw lights on the ocean bobbing towards us. We all crowded around the windows to look out. It was the bunker barge coming to bring us fuel. A few hours later our ship was on its way again.
I am not totally sure what was going on that day. I have been told many times that Satan wants to steal our joy. It is easy to lose the battle to Satan and let him steal our joy. But we have the most powerful weapon of all – prayer – and we need to use it. Don’t let Satan steal your joy. Put on your armor and fight. God wants you. He wants your heart.
“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”—Ephesians 6:11
“Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”—1 Peter 5:8&9
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| From Misc Images |
Comments
1 • Mandy M. • September 21, 2008 • 8:50 PM
Kelli, I’m assuming you wrote this? Just wanted you to know, at this point in my life, this is very encouraging to me. Thanks for sharing. It’s amazing how God can worth through a simple blog post.