Archive for August, 2007

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Interactive Prayer

Friday, August 31st, 2007

Yesterday I received an email from a woman named Martha in

Washington state who wrote that recently she was in a study group at church.  Here’s what she wrote:

In response to a chapter our pastor asked us what our need was for spiritual growth.  My answer was about prayer…but I did not want to read about prayer, I wanted to experience it in new ways or at least dialogue with other Christians about their prayer life.  I went home that night and read my Guideposts Magazine and there was your article.  I went on your website and after reading your samples, I felt strongly about this being an answer to my desire.  Thank you for being a part of my spiritual growth.

            Actually, Martha is the one to be thanked, because she has honed in on the heart of what I hope the Personal Prayer Power series brings to God’s world.  When Jesus called the disciples He didn’t say, “Come and follow me and I will make you philosophers, theologians and teachers of rules.”  Instead He said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  (Matthew 4:19) 

Jesus announced a Kingdom where we’re active partners with Him in bringing about changed hearts, including our own.  Prayer is our power source where we receive guidance, strength, forgiveness, healing and clarity of vision.  It’s an active place where things happen between God and me. 

Please don’t go through the Personal Prayer Power video series simply sitting there listening.  Go home and sit down daily with God and try the activities.  I have complete confidence that something will indeed happen between God and you when you do.  And it will change your life.

 

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Aunt Josie’s Latest Healing

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

 

My Aunt Josie called me from

Pumpkintown, S.C. yesterday morning.  I was surprised to hear her energetic and cheerful voice at that hour of the morning since she’d recently been hospitalized with fluid on her lungs and signs seemed to point to congestive heart failure. 

We call her Aunt Josie although her name is really Jo Grace and she goes by Grace with everyone else.  The name Grace fits her because of the way she has given her time and care to so many of us.  She’s the last of my surviving Aunts and Uncles and she and her daughter’s family are the only ones living on the family property in the mountains after my father died and my sister Susan’s house burned down.  

            You’ll meet Aunt Josie in my book Surprised by Prayer in the opening story where I tell about how she prayed for my mother’s healing when we’d disconnected life support after a serious stroke.  Mom woke up after 5 days and lived 4 more years.  You’ll also hear about her in the Personal Prayer Power series in lesson 2 about my sister Susan’s fire because she took my sister’s family and my disabled father into her tiny home after the fire until they could find a rental house.

            Last week my sister called and told me that Aunt Josie had been hospitalized for fluid on her lungs.  Susan said that they were treating her with antibiotics, although signs seemed to point to congestive heart failure.  I was extremely worried, especially since Aunt Josie is nearly 80 and has a host of other medical complications. 

            As I prayed for Aunt Josie’s health on my morning prayer walk this week, I hoped it wasn’t the beginning of the end for her. And then she called me.  She told me she was planning a little party and inviting several local women from different churches to show them a sample of the PPP videos and tell them about the series!  I was surprised, so I asked her about her illness.

            She said, “Well, I never believe what doctors tell me.  I believe in what God tells me.  The bottom line is that now the doctor’s think it was double pneumonia.  I’d had nose bleed surgery and now they think blood got into my lungs.” 

            And so, feeling her old self, she’s now planning a prayer party.          

           

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What Makes Us Happy? Being Able to Choose

Monday, August 27th, 2007

I recently read a newspaper article that reported that research institutes are beginning to study happiness.  Run Veenhoven, who created the World Database of Happiness in 1999, says, “In much the same way that research of consumer unions helps you to make the best buy, happiness research can help you make the best choices.”

            Studies rate happiness not only on objective questions about how people feel, but also on other factors of well being such as education, nutrition, freedom from fear and violence, gender equality and having choices.  According to studies, people in

Denmark are the happiest with a score of 8.2.  The

U.S. is number 15 with a rating of 7.4.  (The

U.S. ratings were lower because of violence and bad nutrition habits.)  However the one thing the

U.S. scores extremely highly on is the individual ability to make choices.

            One study showed that choice makes more difference than wealth in our sense of happiness.  In one study, poor women in the southern Indian state of Kerala who were able to make their own choices scored very highly on happiness versus women with strict fathers and husbands who limited their ability to choose. 

            In Session 5 of Personal Prayer Power I talk about how prayer relates to two of the three forces that shape our future:  personal choice and limiting forces (which are  things like illness and natural disaster that we can’t change or prevent, which is a whole new subject.)   In Christianity we call our God-given ability to choose “free will.”  

Until I read this study I never considered this free will or our God-given freedom of choice is truly a divine gift.  When we choose in a healthy way, it can create happiness.  More amazingly, choosing God’s good way for ourselves creates happiness not only here on earth in our own lives and in the lives of others, but joy in heaven as well.  Jesus says, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  (Luke 15:7)  The word repent means to change your mind and to choose to live differently.  Joy in heaven?  How intriguing that it can begin when we simply make a small, good choice.  And God smiles.                           

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Finding “The One” to Marry

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

A young man recently wrote me a long letter telling me that he’d met a woman who seemed like “the one.”   The young man had been disappointed in love many times before and I read between the lines that he was hoping God would give him some indication which direction his new relationship was going.

            I’ll begin by saying that I met my husband Gordon at age 19 and we were married after my sophomore year of college and we’ve been married for 34 years.  So I personally have never gone through a long search for a spouse.  However when I wrote my first book Ready, Set…Wait I discovered from reader response that one of the most agonizing waiting periods of life is when you’re single because of circumstances beyond your control, not by choice.

            In the Personal Prayer Power videos in lesson 4 on Prayer and Divine Intervention, I tell how a combination of prayer and small circumstances led me to meet and marry my husband, Gordon.  After thinking about what I might write back to the young man seeking guidance about finding “the one” I realized that patterns of divine intervention when it comes to finding spouses can only be seen in retrospect.  What makes each other “the one” happens over many years of faithful relationship building before and after marriage. 

            One summer when our son Chris was in college he met a girl in

California and when he came home he asked me how you’ll know if she’s “the one” because he felt really strongly about her.  I told him that I wasn’t sure if there’s a single “one and only” that God has planned for us and if we don’t find that person or they don’t respond, we’re out of luck.  I believe that there are many possible “ones” and that what makes any particular person “the one” for us is their free choice and their willingness to make a commitment to the relationship.

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t think that God gives us a plainly marked roadmap when it comes to love.  I believe it’s a step by step journey just as all of life is.  That’s why I believe very strongly in developing the kind of interactive prayer life and relationship with God where we become comfortable hearing the small quiet directions He gives us one day at a time.

 

 

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Mountain Moving Faith

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

Here’s the Daily Guideposts entry that I mentioned in my previous blog about our son, Chris being deployed to Afghanistan several years ago.  It ran on June 4, 2007.  To find out more about Daily Guideposts visit www.guideposts.com   

 

Scripture:  Mark 16:2,3   “…they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?’”

 

When our Sunday school teacher asked us, “What does it mean to have mountain moving faith?” I wanted to answer, “I don’t know, but I desperately need it right now!”  We’d just received word that our son Chris was on his way to

Afghanistan with the Army, and I wondered where I could possible get the kind of strong faith that could move my mountain of fear concerning his safety and well being.

That week I was in

Orangeburg, SC rummaging through an antique store and I found an old fashioned radio cabinet that was perfect for a spot in a small entryway.  Unfortunately, the cabinet was heavy as lead because the old radio and gigantic speaker were still in it and there were no men working in the shop to help me get it into my car.  The woman in charge managed to help me get the radio cabinet onto a dolly and wheeled out to my car.  Just as I opened the trunk wondering what to do next, a man in worn out clothes and a scruffy beard rode down the alleyway on a bicycle.  The woman beckoned the passerby and without a moment’s hesitation the man came over and hoisted the radio cabinet into the trunk like it was nearly weightless.

  

I suddenly realized that mountain moving faith wasn’t about me making the mountain move but rather about me moving toward the mountain as if it weren’t there and as if it weren’t insurmountable.  It was something like the women who carried spices to the tomb of Jesus even though they knew they weren’t strong enough to roll away the rock.   And so as my son Chris settled into an old Soviet base surrounded by rugged arid mountains in

Afghanistan I prayed this prayer:

 

Prayer:  Father, help me to continue on this difficult life journey as if this mountain I see ahead is no obstacle to Your strength to move it or carry me over it.  

 

 

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Meeting a Daily Guideposts Reader at the Post Office

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

Yesterday I was in a U.S. Post office substation in a Hallmark store mailing some packages of Personal Prayer Power DVDs and guidebooks when the woman behind the counter saw my return address and said, “Are you Karen Barber, the Daily Guideposts writer?”   I answered yes and then she said, “And how is your son who’s overseas in the service?”

I told her that our son Chris was due to come home hopefully in early November.  Then I realized that she was talking about the devotional that’s in the 2007 edition of Daily Guideposts where I wrote a piece on how I found the strength to get through Chris’s deployment to Afghanistan, which occurred several years ago.

The woman went on about how when she reads Daily Guideposts she can nearly tell who wrote them because our readers get to have small glimpses into our lives year after year.  In a way, they feel like they’re our friends and part of the family, too.

I explained to the delightful postmistress that Daily Guideposts devotionals are written a year or two before they’re seen in print.  In fact, right now I’ve gotten the notice about the deadline for my 2009 devotionals! 

If you’re not familiar with Daily Guideposts, it’s an anthology of inspirational thoughts from about 40 different writers.  I have about 5 or 6 devotionals sprinkled in throughout the year.  When I write my devotionals, I go back over my journals and put sticky notes on different things that happened in my life that taught me a spiritual lesson.  It’s a wonderful way to review how God has been at work in my life during the last year.  I’m not sure if Daily Guideposts is one of the most read devotionals, but they do sell about 750,000 copies a year and I know that in my house, my husband Gordon and I both read it.

In my next blog post I’ll include the devotional about “mountain moving faith” that helped me whenChris was deployed to Afghanistan.  In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about Daily Guideposts log onto www.guideposts.com  

Thanks for being part of the family!    

 s4e 

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Crisis Praying

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

A reader recently emailed me about her worries and fears for her grown son.  I’ve struggled against fear myself, especially when my elderly father seemed to have lost his will to live.  One thing that I’ve  discovered is that facts and statistics can’t make your feelings of worry and fear go away.  You can’t “talk yourself out of” your fears.  That’s because your attitudes are based on facts over which you’ve layered your past experiences.  And of course if you turn on the TV, you’re liable to be shown everything that can go wrong anywhere in the world on the nightly news like a plane bursting into flames on a runway!  That’s why prayer is really the only way to handle a crisis situation.  That’s because prayer touches the part of you that transcends the rational and gets you in touch with the unseen spiritual side of life.    This kind of prayer isn’t the kind where you simply shoot up requests to God hoping things will turn out all right.  I’m talking about the kind of prayer where you develop a close relationship with Jesus and are able to interact with Him and hear what He might be saying to you through others, through the Bible and through His answering thoughts that come quietly into your mind. 

In the Personal Prayer Power video series in session 6 on Crisis Praying I talk about a simple way to pray during a crisis that leads you into a quiet setting with Christ, a place where you stop trying to solve all of your problems and where you simply rest knowing that He’s there and that He cares. 

May you know that Jesus is with you today and always.

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The Mystery Packet of Scriptures

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

     After my story “A Mother’s

Mission” was published in the July issue of Guideposts I received a brown envelope containing several letter sized envelopes full of printed Bible verses.  Unfortunately, somehow the original envelope identifying who sent the packet was lost in the mailroom when Guideposts forwarded it to me. 

 

Maybe one of you can solve the mystery of who sent it.  Each envelope had a little note paper-clipped to it.  One read, “Please have the soldiers say these Scriptures out loud so they will become a part of them and they will be strengthened wherever they are.  The Lord’s eyes are over the righteous and His ears are open to their prayers.”  The verses appear to be photocopies of a page from a publication and they have been cut into individual strips.

 

Whoever sent the envelopes knows that Scripture goes hand in had with prayer, helping us focus on God’s promises to us.  Often each Scripture can become a prayer.  Here are some verses sent to our soldier from the mystery reader:

 

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  Psalm 46:1

 

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”  Matthew 7:7

 

“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersover thou goest.  Joshua 1:9       

 

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Prayer Turns Fear to Courage

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Guideposts Magazine recently forwarded a padded envelope to me from reader named Beverly Heritage from

Carmichael, California.  Inside was a wonderful treasure.  It’s a small navy blue book Strength for Service to God and Country published by Abingdon-Cokesbury Press in 1942.  In its tissue thin, slightly yellowed pages are devotionals written for soldiers during World War II by ministers and notable religious writers of the time.  As I read through the pages I was struck by the fact that many of the writers referred back to their experiences during “the last World War” to encourage those in my own father’s generation who went into combat.

 

In browsing through the entries I found a snippet of a poem by Karle Wilson Baker that has this line:  “Courage is Fear That has said its prayers.”

 

I’m drawn to this quote because often we think that courage and fear are opposite states.  We think that fear makes courage impossible.  The truth of the matter is that fear is very natural.  It is actually a prudent response to threatening situations.  Prayer is the essential ingredient for facing and surviving overwhelming situations.  Prayer isn’t only the “God save me” cries sent heavenward.  It’s also the “God be with me!” pleas that help us walk through our darkest days.

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When Our Loved Ones Are in a Crisis We Can’t Change

Sunday, August 19th, 2007

 

 

 

Recently I received two different emails from parents who were feeling great pain and sorrow over their grown children’s situations.  One was from a mother whose son had been unexpectedly deployed to

Iraq for 18 months leaving behind a wife and an infant and the other was from a friend whose son was headed for a heartbreaking split with his wife. 

 

It’s hard to adequately answer such emails, but here’s what I wrote back to my friend:  

 

You really raise some very profound questions that I think all parents struggle with about our children and also with our own elderly parents when we become responsible for their care.  I recently talked to Guideposts writer Marion Bond West Acuff about her book on Nevertheless living when her husband Jerry died of brain cancer.  You can read about it in the Personal Prayer Power Action Guide in the chapter on How Prayer Shapes the Future Part 2: Choice and Limiting Forces.  (go to www.personalprayerpower.com for ordering details)   

What you’re up against are what I call limiting forces, things you can’t change except for your response to them.  These include all sorts of things that you’ve experienced in your life so far, such as the death of loved ones, illnesses, child rearing problems, even hurricanes.  I call these forces that limit our ability to choose The Future Nevertheless.  We really don’t have any choice or the ability to change what’s happening, so we turn to our resources of faith in God to help us live good lives despite the limiting forces.   One incredibly important thing

Marion told me is that you have go to through the fear and pain first before you can get to faith.  She said it’s like wanting to have a child without the pain and labor.  (She had me word it that way so adoptive parents wouldn’t feel left out.  Adoptive parents usually go through more pain for their child’s arrival than a normal labor and delivery.)           So in answer to your underlying question, you’re supposed to feel pain and be fearful at the beginning, because this is a natural part of the faith process.  If you didn’t feel that way right now, then the faith and trust you will later feel would not be real. 

Marion calls it the fear to faith cycle.  She says you can’t skip over the fear and pain part.  It’s real and it’s part of the process.   May God continue to bless you and your family with His loving presence. 

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