"Meanwhile these three remain, faith, hope & love, but the greatest of these is love." I Cor. 13:13
I finished reading a novel yesterday by Kristen Heitzman. The novel really wasn't as well written with depth of characters, etc. that I like, but the story kept me interested. I had picked it up at a Goodwill Store because it looked like a quick read and since Country Guy has been working on taxes the past couple of evenings I was looking for an "escape" book, but didn't want something I wouldn't be able to put down.
Anyway, near the end of the book one of the two main characters was near death, and Steve, the man who loved her, was saying to a friend that he couldn't believe God would heal her even though lots of people were praying. Steve said he didn't have hope for a miracle. To this the friend replied something to the effect that "you love her and that is enough. Love is the greatest of faith, hope, and love." The friend told him to lavish that love on her as he sat beside her comatose body. (FYI: she lived.)
That triggered a memory of some of the ideas expressed by men & women whose books I read when I became active in CFO. Starr Daily & Glenn Clark particularly inspired me because of their belief that if you could love a person--had compassion for that person--your prayers were exponentially more effective. They looked for ways to 'put themselves in the person's place' so to speak, so they could feel compassion for them.
I remember Glenn Clark telling about how he was in a hotel room in Chicago waiting to speak at a church when he picked up the newspaper and read of a man who was sentenced to death for a crime he said he didn't commit. Glenn seemed to pick up a burden for this person as if the Lord was asking him to pray. He read that the man had a wife and three children. So did Glenn, so he began to identify with him, and how he would miss his children growing up and they him. Glen continued thinking along those lines until he had great compassion for the man, and then he prayed for him. The next day the paper said the Governor had pardoned him.
I finished reading a novel yesterday by Kristen Heitzman. The novel really wasn't as well written with depth of characters, etc. that I like, but the story kept me interested. I had picked it up at a Goodwill Store because it looked like a quick read and since Country Guy has been working on taxes the past couple of evenings I was looking for an "escape" book, but didn't want something I wouldn't be able to put down.
Anyway, near the end of the book one of the two main characters was near death, and Steve, the man who loved her, was saying to a friend that he couldn't believe God would heal her even though lots of people were praying. Steve said he didn't have hope for a miracle. To this the friend replied something to the effect that "you love her and that is enough. Love is the greatest of faith, hope, and love." The friend told him to lavish that love on her as he sat beside her comatose body. (FYI: she lived.)
That triggered a memory of some of the ideas expressed by men & women whose books I read when I became active in CFO. Starr Daily & Glenn Clark particularly inspired me because of their belief that if you could love a person--had compassion for that person--your prayers were exponentially more effective. They looked for ways to 'put themselves in the person's place' so to speak, so they could feel compassion for them.
I remember Glenn Clark telling about how he was in a hotel room in Chicago waiting to speak at a church when he picked up the newspaper and read of a man who was sentenced to death for a crime he said he didn't commit. Glenn seemed to pick up a burden for this person as if the Lord was asking him to pray. He read that the man had a wife and three children. So did Glenn, so he began to identify with him, and how he would miss his children growing up and they him. Glen continued thinking along those lines until he had great compassion for the man, and then he prayed for him. The next day the paper said the Governor had pardoned him.
Since yesterday I have been thinking about that--how we can have faith, or hope, but if we have love, how much better! When we're praying, the greatest thing we can do for that person is to love him/her. Therefore it seems it would benefit the situation if we began looking for 'a hook'--something that will help us love the person more if we truly want our prayers to be effective. I believe we will see many more miracles when love becomes our aim.
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