Pray BFF #56    (And prayer update below)         March 31, 2004

Personal Spiritual Revival

As I nestled under a thick homemade quilt to keep warm, I was praying for God to revive His people, either for our church or around the world, I forget. Suddenly, God opened my eyes to what He was doing in my own life. God has been taking some of my worst moments in the world and turning them into very special, intimate times with Him. God has been reviving me. That is just the answer to prayer I have been looking for.

I have been desperately sick for the last few days. Horrible throat pain keeps me from eating and even swallowing. I was meditating on the words, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 3:1). Then all the joys of the past couple days and nights came and filled my mind like a sweet perfume.

Because of the pain, I could not talk. I couldn’t even answer the telephone. My children were making fun of me because of the funny faces and sign language I used to communicate. (I was never good at that stuff). So what else do you do with your time? I prayed and prayed. I thought about His Word and His will. I thought about how He marvelously worked out last week’s schedule. The intense pain didn’t move in until later on Sunday after I had spoken twice. But more than this, even though I couldn’t speak, God enabled me to write and write starting on Monday. I have three speaking engagements this weekend, starting on Friday. These kinds of thoughts of how God has helped me do His will in spite of the pain has brought tears to my eyes. He is refreshing my heart.

Let me share another experience from yesterday. As I was meditating and writing on another passage (James 4:1-3), God again humbled my soul with delight. From a logical perspective, I should have had a foggy mind since I had little sleep the night before. But He kept revealing special truths from the passage in such a way that my soul was excited. God was teaching me when I was desperately sick. I was merely typing and 'mousing' away (I draw a lot of diagrams).

Just last week I sensed that I was getting a bit stale. I wasn’t quite hitting the spiritual mark where I should be. I read His Word but was reluctant to meditate on it. I was quicker to end than start. I asked Him to revive me. It wasn’t until just now that I realized that He used this sickness to turn my heart back to Him. Is it worth it? Definitely.

“Finally, rejoice in the Lord.” My heart has been so happy. I don’t need to speak to be happy. I don’t need to be able to write to have God’s peace in my heart. He is my joy and nothing can take that away! Even if my life is snuffed out (I think I am on the path of recovery by the way), that same joy will subsist right into eternity. No matter what the difficulty the Philippians were facing, they could always have Christ’s joy right in their heart. Right now that is where He is. That is where He, by God’s infinite grace, He always will be.

Praise God for your faithful prayers. God is working and helping during this very busy time. He makes His Name great!

Thanks to God!	Requests to God
We are so thankful for God's wisdom and grace to get us through this busy busy time. We thank the Lord for the powerful teachings in the "Building a Great Marriage" series. Praise God that many different nations are joining in our readership. I noticed some had translated a few BFF web pages into Japanese. We are thankful to be able to teach the class for parents with or that are expecting babies, Godly Beginnings for the Family, Praise God for the few moments to finish tax forms. Praise God for personal spiritual renewal for Paul. We really see God's grace at work in the development of BFF materials.	Many of our family are sick. This often means getting up several times at night. But even more rare is that both Linda and I are both sick at the same time! One child seems well but then seems to get sick again. The marriage class meets most Sunday mornings at 11:30. Our prayer is that God would build great marriages! Most every Friday night we lead the Godly Beginnings for the Family, a parenting class for new parents. May God give each parent a sound biblical start! Keep praying for preparation for going to India: dates, possible team members, development of packets, budget and provision. One person might be interested. Information is coming in. Paul will be speaking three times this weekend if his voice recovers. (4/2; 4/4 twice).
Prayer Update 4/3/04 (this was sent shortly above the other letter). Dear Prayer Partners, We really appreciate your prayers. We were impacted by them just a few hours after we sent the last prayer letter. Two significant things: 1) Paul could speak. Yes, lightly, but there was a breakthrough. 2) Also, Rebekah who had fallen sick again was totally lymp in the afternoon. She had cried during her nap and with fever was down. That was when we sent the prayer letter. By supper she had totally recovered and was up playing with the other children. Thank you so much! Thanks for the notes. God provided Paul with a special seasonal message today. Hope it stirs your heart like it does Paul's. Thanks again for your faithfulness. And thanks to the faithfulness of God who has wonderfully employed us in His business of kingdom building! The Significance of the Triumphal Entry “Another View of Christ’s Passion” Luke 19:35-38
Serving Together for the Glory of God, Paul and Linda Biblical Foundation for Freedom www.foundationsforfreedom.net Write to Paul with your comments: info@foundationsforfreedom.net Top  |  Previous | Next |  BFF Homepage	Track God's answers to your prayers! Prayer archives Use the BFF logo to link your web page to BFF! www.foundationsforfreedom.net