Faith - Prayer - Going Home

Faith, Prayer, and Going Home   
[adapted from Jack Hayford. He is a preacher. I am using some things he wrote about his mother's death.]


The fact.

God created us in His Image and put us in a world of Time. We are born a tiny baby and we live as long as God gives us. The old must die. The young may die. God's great Purpose for each of us is being fulfilled. We treasure God's gift of life and we use it to the fullest. [John 10:10]

"I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him." Ecclesiastes 3:14

"For I know that my Redeemer lives.." Job 19:25


The problem.

"Most of us struggle with how to pray for the sick. It was especially hard for me when my Mama faced bone cancer. How do you pray when you believe Jesus Christ heals today, yet every instinct tells you, "This is the end of this saint's journey on the earth-side of things?"


Lesson 1. "Intense spasms of pain began last June. [She died Oct. 97.] She had a full life [81 yrs.] and joyously looked forward to "going home." Her suffering seemed "needless." I was praying, "O Lord, take Mama home."

"But suddenly I thought, what would God speak to me? "Stop praying that way now!" I was puzzled. What should I then pray??? This thought blossomed in my mind. God would say: "You should pray for her to be 'raised up' - whether to a measure of health or to My Eternal Presence. That is My responsibility. Yours is to pray for life, not death."

"Pray for LIFE! Yes! But in our world Death is part of life [Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,14]. Leave the 'raising up' to God."

"I remembered James 5:15. "And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." God might raise her up to heaven's glory rather than physical health. I felt at peace when I came to this conclusion, with God's help."


Lesson 2. "About mid July Mama was in the ICU and a new level of "dragging on" seemed to have begun. I fumbled in prayer, "Lord, why must this continue?" I agonized over it. Again I thought, what would God say? "I am still working things in My daughter, as well as through her."

"The suffering we groan over is temporary and brief. I listen to Paul. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Cor 4:17

"No suffering will ever be without purpose or reward. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18 

"It would take a book to record the remarkable things that happened through my mother's presence and personal contacts in the 10 weeks that followed. God did do great things through her. We were blessed."


Lesson 3. "In September we were all feeling the draining impact of mother's illness. There was no question of our love for her. But we felt frustration. We had to wait, and pray. I said to my wife: "I feel like my life is on hold." I wasn't angry. I loved my mother. But everything seemed at such a standstill."

"Two days later, perhaps God put this thought in my mind. "So? On Hold? In whose hands have you put your life???" And I remembered Psalm 31:15 "My times are in Your hand." Then I prayed, "Forgive me, Lord. I affirm Your Word; all my life and its details are in YOUR hands. I am not the victim of circumstances. Father, I'm living in the stream of Your purpose and will. So now, until in Your own time we come to Mama's home-going, I rest in YOU - completely."

"And I did - until His Victory was all of ours together. Mama was raised up to Eternal Life!!! Paul taught: "Absent from the body, present with the Lord!!!" [2 Cor. 5:1-10]


Can we have confidence in our salvation? Some will fall away. But each of us has the authority to resist the devil. "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." James 4:7

The Apostle John wrote: "And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us."    1 John 3:23-24

"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5:13