Today we are so fortunate to have a guest writer at Only By Prayer. Brittany Jean is a nineteen-year-old college student living in the Midwest with her parents and younger brother. She is currently majoring in pre-law and is planning on using that degree for ministry.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit. Psalm 34:18

The Hebrew definition for the word brokenhearted can be defined as anxious, stricken, destroyed, or shattered (The Strong’s NIV Exhaustive Concordance). Throughout the Old and New Testament, many of the people that would be defined as being close to God, such as David and Job, went through severe trials and hardships, leading them to feel brokenhearted. This shows that we are not alone! God’s faithful children have gone through moments of depression and brokenheartedness and have come out even stronger and closer to God than before!

Why does God allow His children to go through hardships and trials?

In Philippians 1:12-14 Paul is in prison, but instead of complaining about his situation, he rejoices because he knows that what he is going through is only encouraging others to also take a stand for Christ. Many times, God will allow us to go through hardships in order to encourage and be a testimony to others. God can also use these times in our lives to draw us closer to Him, because He loves us and longs to be near to us.

How does God show His protection by allowing us to go through trials?

In Psalm 119:67, David says “before I was afflicted, I went astray.” This shows that sometimes God allows trials into our lives so that we can learn to rely on Him and not on the things of this world. When God takes away everything we hold to be important, our only choice left is to lean on Him, and because He is madly in love with us, He will bring us through the wilderness—sometimes in order to bring us closer to Him.

How should this impact every Christian’s life?

2 Corinthians 1:4 says “[God] comforts us in all affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” God does not only use pastors and counselors to help hurting people; He uses all Christians who allow Him to use their hurt to help other people. While sometimes we may not understand why we go through what we go through, God sees the whole picture and may be using us to help someone else in need.

What other examples does the Bible give us on why we go through trials?

Can God still use us to help others in the midst of our hurting, or do we need to wait until we are healed and through our trial?

Why do you think so?

Was there a time in your life when someone helped you because they went through a similar situation?

How did they make a difference?

Is there someone who is hurting that you can help because of your experience?

What can you do?

Jane VanOsdol

Last time we looked at how Jesus was able to maintain peace in His life and found out that prayer played a big part in His serenity. What I would like to look at today is how we can do that same thing in our own lives. Some of you may be thinking that if I only knew what situation you were facing right now, that I wouldn’t be so quick to talk about being peaceful.

Let me say, I hear you! I have been through a few tragedies in my life, and I know how desperation and despair feels. But, I have also seen my Lord move into each situation and restore hope in my life where it had previously been dead. What we need to focus on is not the situation, but the only One on heaven and earth who has the power to bring life out of dead things and peace out of chaos:  Jesus.

First of all, let me ask you, What situation do you need peace in right now? Let’s just start with the hardest thing and get it out in the open. Maybe you’re even afraid to mention it to your friends or family anymore because it has dragged on for so long, or maybe it’s a fresh worry. But acknowledge to yourself what it is. May I also suggest an activity for you?

I would like to suggest that you write down what it is that you need peace about in a notebook. Write down everything about it and your prayers for the situation. Ask God to give you a specific scripture(s) to pray for the situation and invite Him to begin working. Then try to rest in that. Continue to write and journal and pray about the situation and record how you see God working. It may be that over time you see a person you have been praying for changed. Or, it may be that it is YOU that God changes instead. It may be that an ill person you want healed for earth instead dies and is healed to heaven. If that is the case, continue to record how God is moving in the midst of that tragedy in your life. Over time, you will begin to see patterns of God living and working in your life.

Often times just the actual writing down can help bring us a peace, but the real peace comes from understanding this scripture:  And we know that all things work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

In the times when our prayers are not answered the way we want them to be, when the sick are not healed, or when the job does not come through for example, this does not make this any less of an answer; it is just a different answer. I begin to cultivate peace in these situations when I cling to God’s promise that He will work together to bring good out of this desperate situation. Be persistent in prayer and know that you have God’s word that He will bring good. Be waiting and watchful and record the good when you see it.

It also helps to keep the big picture in mind. Encouraging to me is the meaning of the word peace from John 14:27. The Blue Letter Bible defines peace in one instance as ” the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever that is.” When we know that our big picture is taken care of, other things tend to pale in comparison.

Cultivating a life of prayer and peace is only attained through persistence. God does not minimize our earthly trials. He walks and prays us through them.

Pray on!

Jane VanOsdol

After many frustrating days, I finally asked God to show me what to do about this. A little later an idea began to form in my mind that I thought might work for me.  Now, maybe this is obvious to all of you, but to me it was just the spark I needed to to try  and get my prayer life back to two-way communication, instead of my one-way laundry list. I’ll share it with you, just in case anyone else has the same struggle.

On Monday of the week during my prayer time, I write down in my notebook all my people and concerns I need to pray for that week. I have my notebook split into several narrow columns. Each column heading is either a person’s name or subject headings like “Friends,” “Church,” “Country” etc. I then start the week off by praying for all those concerns. The rest of the week instead of going down each column in order and praying the same things all over again, I am instead quiet and ask the Lord to show me what to pray for that day. In the short time I have been doing this, I am finding that God will bring various people or topics to my mind from my list and maybe put a verse in my mind to pray for them, or bring a new concern to my mind about them to pray for. I then add these things to my prayer journal next to the original information. He has also given me entirely new subjects not yet entered in my journal to pray over.

So far, this has been a huge help in relieving my frustration, while still covering my family and friends in prayer. I feel my prayers are more Spirit directed. If you’ve dealt with the same frustration and have overcome it, I’d like to hear about what works for you. Enjoy your prayer time this week and pray on!