When you take prayer out of schools and testimony service out of church you stand the risk of silencing the voice of truth. Prayer is our request to God to cover and protect and meet our needs. Prayer also allows God access to intervene in an issue that we cannot resolve with and in ourselves. Testimonies are an acknowledgement of what was, and an announcement of what is. Perhaps when you silence the two, you prohibit your neighbor from knowing that they may have someone they can talk to right in their presence.
Get ya life is my prayer and my testimony! Truth is, God gave me the trilogy before I completed the first book. These are the issues that He placed His fingers on as it relates to my life and to the life of those who are struggling in their past and present pain. If I told you at least 5 people in a church of 30 have been molested, physically/mentally, sexually abused, and as a result at least 1 of the 5 have inflicted the same trauma on someone else would you believe me? Of course you would. Why? Because you have or you know someone who has experienced this very thing. Question, how much do we really love our neighbor? To know something and not say something? To be privy to information about someone struggling internally but judge them for their behaviors externally? We want to pray the devil out of the homosexual but not pray for and counsel the soul of the abused! I got news for you: It’s the same person! You cannot heal a portion of a person without acknowledging that you are awakening the other side. When God reveals a truth about someone’s past to you-----and you expose it, you don’t just expose the spirit you expose the wound! And too often we have tongue talking, holy ghost filled, “cancer patients” in our midst. It’s not enough for a doctor to tell a patient that they have stage 2 cancer…It’s a start. But the doctor needs to prepare for treatment! We are not treating the ill, we are only exposing them and putting them at risk for being identified by other wounded and ill people who have also been diagnosed but not properly treated. Is that love? Is that really the love of Christ?
When Jesus encountered the woman at the well, He did expose her (to herself not the world) But what He also did was offer her an alternative to her lifestyle. You don’t need that temporary fix for your situation you need an eternal answer! And she was curious enough and no doubt exhausted from trying to ease the pain she felt every single day. "Sir give me this water so that I won’t keep getting thirsty." She was able to admit in that moment that all she was doing was temporarily managing her issue AND that she was tired of doing it! “I don’t want to keep coming to this same place to draw water!” When the Savior was done dealing with her issue, the woman was able to leave HER water jar and began to evangelize. She did not need to come to temporarily fix her issue or numb her own pain she needed someone to help her see herself for who she was and offer her a better way. But it took love. It took doing the uncomfortable thing. It was not customary for Jesus to be talking to this woman but he had to put himself in an uncomfortable situation to heal her and she in turn had to accept it.
We say we love. But do we truly love? How uncomfortable are you really willing to be to show love to your neighbor? How patient? How kind? How long suffering? How hopeful? How enduring?
We may never get prayer back into schools. We may never have testimony service again. But are you willing to pray and be a living testimony so that your neighbor can live and never thirst for love again?