Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York
City talks about a desperate time in his life when his oldest daughter, who had
been a model child, became very rebellious at age 16 and eventually left the
church and the family to live with her boyfriend. His wife, Carol, at one point
heard the devil whisper in her ear
that even though she and her husband were making a great impact for Jesus
in their church and community, he
had their oldest child and was going to take the rest. She threatened to take
the children out of NYC if he remained there. Pastor Cymbala and his wife went
through a long time of anguish and suffering for their daughter but nothing
changed. He was impressed by God to cry out to Him only and to not involve
other members of the congregation in their struggle.
One
Tuesday night prayer meeting he preached from Acts chapter 4 about the church
boldly calling out to God in the face of persecution. A young woman whom he
considered spiritually sensitive sent him a note, which read: “Pastor Cymbala,
I feel impressed that we should stop the meeting and all pray for your
daughter.” Hesitantly, he decided
that the note was good advice from the Lord so he stopped the meeting and
addressed the congregation. “The truth of the matter,” he said, “although I
haven’t talked much about it, is that my daughter is very far from God these
days. She thinks up is down, and down is up; light is dark, and dark is light.
But I know God can break through to her, and so I’m going to ask Pastor Boekstaaf
to lead us in praying for Chrissy. Let’s join hands across the sanctuary.”
What happened next can only be described as “the church turned into a
labor room.” “There arose a groaning, a sense of desperate determination, as if
to say, ‘Satan, you will not have this girl. Take your hands off her---she is
coming back!’ I was overwhelmed. The force of the vast throng calling on God
almost literally knocked me over.”
Thirty-two hours later, on a Thursday morning, Chrissy
returned home and asked her mother if she could talk to her father. When he
came down from upstairs where he had been shaving, he cautiously spoke her name:
“Chrissy?” She grabbed his pants leg and spoke in anguish. “Daddy---Daddy—I
have sinned against God, I’ve sinned against myself. I have sinned against you
and Mommy. Please forgive me.”
After hugging his daughter and crying for a while, Chrissy spoke again.
“Who was praying for me? In the middle of the night, God woke me and showed me
I was heading into the abyss. There was no bottom to it—it scared me to death.
I was so frightened. I realized how hard I’ve been, how wrong, how rebellious.
But at the same time, it was like God wrapped His arms around me and held me
tight. He kept me from sliding any farther as He said, ‘I still love you.’
Daddy, tell me the truth—who was praying for me Tuesday night?” (Fresh Wind,
Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala)
Please increase the fervency and urgency of my prayers for
spiritual awakening, and use me to make prayer contagious to others.
Pray
1.
For a desire to pray for the lost and those who
know the Lord and are not walking close to Him daily.
2.
Pray for a sensitive spirit to discern who needs
to be prayed for and to quickly obey God’s Spirit when prompted to pray for
someone.
3.
Ask God to help you be more faithful in your
prayer life.
No comments:
Post a Comment