More Insight

Insight

(Dragonfly Ministries President, Mary Hamrick)

April 2003

One step at a time.  That’s the way the Lord grows us into His likeness and that’s the way we get through life’s journey.  Looking back, I never would have believed that I would ever enjoy praying.  I saw prayer as a necessity in getting difficult things accomplished or in asking for the miracle of healing for a loved one, but I didn’t understand the vast importance that it has in our lives, as believers in Christ.  Praying occurred before meals and before bed, and while preparing to teach a Bible class, but it did not occur more than twice a day.  It just didn’t seem necessary.  That was my immaturity and ignorance of how God desires to work in our lives.  But as God grows us one step at a time, He also teaches us one principal at a time, including the importance of prayer.

In 2000, I joined a Bible study group that met at an Episcopal Church.  I’m a member of the Baptist church, but the Lord called me, through a friend, to go to this Episcopal Church and do a weekly Bible study with a group called “The Healing Hearts”.  In this Bible study, I met a group of five strong spiritual women who prayed with a power I had never before experienced. They prayed as if they expected their prayers to be answered; they prayed in unison, each expressing the needs of each other and praying the words that it seemed someone else had whispered in their ear.  I began to enjoy this time of prayer with these women, because they seemed to pray the heart of God.  They prayed in stillness, never rushing prayer time, but always waiting on the Spirit of God to move them to prayer and to prompt them how to pray.  I learned a lot from these women, and I grew closer and closer to the Lord through these prayer times.  In essence, they taught me how to pray with a sincerity of heart and a focus on God.

In October 2000 I was scheduled for surgery.  These “Healing Hearts” assembled other prayer warriors from their church to gather around me to pray before the surgery.  As the women touched me, anointed me with oil, and prayed over me, I felt the very strong presence of the Lord. Their prayers were powerful and these women expected great things to happen because of their prayers.  They prayed with authority, with oneness, with expectation.  Again, the Lord used them to teach me about prayer.  

Recently I started attending a Wednesday night prayer group at “my” church.  The group is called “Praying the Heart of God”, and I didn’t “get” the name until I attended my first meeting. As the five women sat in a circle praying, I would hear them pray the words that the Holy Spirit had placed on my heart.  It was as though the Holy Spirit whispered to each of us what we should be praying for.  It didn’t happen once or twice, but it happened for the entire hour we were praying.  As we closed our prayer time, I realized that we HAD been praying the “Heart of God”; in oneness, in expectation, and with sincerity of heart.  God had taught me about prayer and was now using me to pray His heart for “my” church.  All five women who sat in our circle that Wednesday night knew that the Holy Spirit had lead each of us in our prayers that evening, and I left from there rejoicing to have been in His presence with His spiritual daughters.  

Through these experiences, I have learned the power of prayer, the necessity of prayer, the divine intervention that occurs when we pray – for ourselves and for others.  I have learned that when we still our hearts and minds and focus on Him during our prayer time, He will reveal to us how to pray and what to pray so that we can always pray the heart of God.

God is interested in all aspects of our lives.  When we pray, we’re not taking His time away from others, we’re investing in our own lives and the lives of those around us.   Believe it or not, He has time for all of us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The issue is not whether He has time for us; the issue is, will we make time for Him?  Begin today by committing to start each day with a prayer of thanks.  Begin making prayer a key principal in your spiritual growth, and remember, our spiritual growth is achieved one step at a time.  When we take a step toward Him, He will meet us there.

Mary H.