Daniel 6:11
Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
1 Timothy 5:5
The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
Luke 18:1
[ The Parable of the Persistent Widow ] Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Luke 2:37
and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
“ I had a praying Grandmother.” You’ve heard these words before. Someone, somewhere has spoken them. Maybe you heard it in church, maybe in a song or maybe you’ve spoken these very words yourself. I have. I had a praying grandmother. Quite a woman of God she was. Allie Mae Sneed. Gave her heart to Jesus at twelve years of age. Married young. Raised thirteen children (sixty six grandchildren). Worked tirelessly in the Church all of her years. After forty years of marriage, my grandfather passed away and she never remarried. All of her remaining years, she was a spiritual influence on all who came to know her. All she knew was… Jesus. From my childhood, I observed that she not only prayed formally and fervently and frequently, holding regular prayer services in her home, but that she talked about Jesus constantly and seemed to talk to him constantly. So much so that as a child, I used to wonder, really wonder, where he was and how could she see him to talk to him and about him like she did. She seemed to ‘know’ him in such an intimate way. Subsequently, though she was alone, she was never lonely or lonesome. I could walk out to the front porch, where she would be rocking… and praying and she would start talking to me as if.. He’d just left. Just stepped off the porch and out of my immediate sight. You could tell… she had been with Jesus.
It was strange. She would tell me when the Lord had sent someone by to fix something at her house or bring her some groceries. And the people that the Lord sent by would affirm that, indeed, the Lord had sent them. This was such a part of her personal environment that I found myself looking for him; Jesus around every corner. Jesus was a part of her ‘community’, and subsequently, a part of ours. She set an example that should carry on … from generation to generation.
Fathers, Mothers, brothers, sisters: Family and Jesus, God’s grand design; that we should all be related to one another through Christ. Knit together spiritually and eternally through the blood of Jesus: Family. Paul’s message to Timothy: We worship God when we value others. When we treat one another like family. When we value others as family, God is made manifest through us and through our interaction with one another. Heaven comes to earth and stays. What ever the circumstance, when we value those around us: our family, our friends, our coworkers, we worship. And when we worship, He is Jehovah-Shammah meaning ‘The Lord who is present’’. We call Him Immanuel meaning ‘God with us’, His plan all along…. Enjoy the lesson!
Blessings,
.wb
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