Archives: September 2006

She knew he was coming. She knew why he was coming. She knew when he was coming.

Meet Shari, our own new addition to our family. It’s been about almost eight days since she joined us.

Shari knew Russell was coming to Missouri for her, to make her his bride. But she had to wait a long time.

While she waited, she prepared. She kept herself for him alone. She communicated with him.

I should be like Shari.

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

Someone is coming for me, too!

May I prepare for Him . . . and keep myself for Him alone . . . and communicate with Him.

Work? Praying takes work?

So prayer takes work, eh? Hmmm.

What’s there about it that makes it be work?

“Epaphras . . . always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12).

For this man, prayer was an ongoing, intense experience. Work, in other words.

I know how difficult it is to pray persistently and intensely and desperately for others.

That’s why I do it so infrequently.

Maybe that’s why some have fallen instead of standing perfect and complete.

So what will I do about it besides writing this little piece?