Pray and Plant

Pray and Plant

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is Pray and Plant from our Sojourn With Luz Leigh Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

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Sojourn With Luz Leigh

Pray and Plant

Written by Luz Leigh - 28 October 2008

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17. This is today's daily Bible reading in Open Windows.

As I have said before, isn't it amazing how our Lord works? For the past two days I have been talking with a young man, whom I shall call Tony, on the Internet who is very disturbed about the death of his wife in an automobile accident. He is not a Christian so he has not the Lord's comfort such as I had when my husband died suddenly thirteen years, three months, and sixteen days ago. Yes, I know how many years, months, days it's been because I still miss him. But the Lord has given me the strength to go on with my life. And for that I am so grateful. This morning he caused that Bible verse to be there for me. Sort of a reminder.

Tony kept asking questions like, do you still miss him? How do you get through the days/nights? I assured him I still miss my husband and I get through each day and night by praying, reading my Bible and finding ways to serve the Lord to fill my time. He then asked what I meant by that ... the praying. It was then my pleasure to share with this young man about "praying without ceasing" ... how I talk to the Lord just as I talk to any friend. "Do you talk out loud?" he asked. Well, yes, at times I do. While doing my household chores, I carry on a conversation with Him just as though He were physically present. Other times I pray silently.

Referring back to the daily Bible reading, the writer penned these words: In 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul listed several helpful principles for believers to follow in life. "Pray without ceasing" stands high among them. Christians have the instinctual need to pray. The Christian's spiritual life ebbs away in the absence of prayer just as physical life slips away in the absence of air, nourishment, or rest."

When speaking to a dear friend about my concern over the young man's lack of faith and his questioning of "why did God take away from me the thing I loved most in life?," I said I am sure that until Tony places his faith in the Lord he will never find peace. I also voiced my concern that I might fail in this assignment that the Lord has given me ... to reach out to this young man. My rhetorical question to my friend was, "Why does the Lord never send me an easy assignment?" Loren's reply was: "Then you wouldn't grow." As I was pondering on those words, he continued, "The outcome isn't your problem ... just the planting." Those words are ringing in my heart. My assignment has been to plant the words of encouragement, show the young man the way to the Lord and allow him to make his decision. There will be others who will talk with him, guide him and lead him to the Lord, but I can now be assured that I did my part. I planted.

Will I stop praying for Tony? Of course not. Will I stop talking to him? Of course not. Will I be the one to ultimately lead him to the Lord, into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as his Savior? Probably not. But I will be sitting back on the "spiritual pews" knowing that I did my part. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:5-6 concerning his and Apollos' part in God's field (plan)? "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe---as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow."

That's what I am ... a servant of the Lord and so happy to be called that.

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