Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Four: "On Your Marks"

Introduction

Five articles about faith-based ministry to refugees precede this one. The article Titles are The Warp and Weft of Life[1], Conception: Empowering to Serve Refugees[2], Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage One: Getting to Know Refugees[3], Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Two: Founding a Faith-based Ministry to Refugees[4], and Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Three: Connecting[5]. Besides these, others of my refugee articles relay stories directly from refugees about their lives. These articles begin with the title In Their Words[6][7][8]. One other article on working with refugees teaches about the importance of letting the person tell his or her story. The title of this article is Just Listen[9].

In earlier articles of the refugee ministry series, you learned who refugees are, how many refugees are in the world as of the end of 2016, and that refugees come from many countries in the world. For faith-based refugee work, you must receive God’s vision, pray continually, and depend on God for strength. Further, you must become acquainted with the refugees by talking with them, and then determine their needs based on those conversations with them and from your own inspection of their lives. Another part of working with refugees is setting up a refugee ministry organization with a clear mission statement, and clear goals and objectives. These will keep the ministry focused. They will allow people working with you to help refugees and people outside the organization to understand God’s vision for you and your goals for the refugee ministry as you received it from Him.

This fourth article in the Inception part of the series will look at those tasks immediately preceding the start of the refugee ministry, hence the title, “On Your Mark.”. These tasks are the necessities of your particular ministry. Whether you plan to teach English, give food or rent help, offer counseling services, give legal aid, offer medical aid with clinics, or whatever the vision God gave you, certain practical necessities are needed to begin the ministry. Besides the practical, you must consider other things. These other considerations comprise finding a venue, advertising, submitting funding requests, getting volunteers, more advocacy, and most importantly, continued prayer.

Prayer

Again, as stated before, prayer must enwrap every part of a ministry for the vision which God gives. God is the One who gives the vision and He must empower the work, so the workers will not grow weary, heavy-hearted, and give up on the work to which He calls them. Prayer must weave throughout each part of the refugee ministry to understand God about to whom or to which organization to meet with to get volunteers and funding. Prayer will help you decide when to change or adapt the work and when to enlarge the ministry. It will help you realize your need for added expertise. Added to this, prayer opens people’s hearts as you and the refugee organization advocate and seek ministry funding for refugees and the ministry to them. Without prayer throughout the entire process, the ministry weakens because it rests upon the limited wisdom, knowledge, and strength of people instead of on all-knowing and all-mighty God.

A Venue

One of the most important parts to any ministry is having a place from which to minister. A venue provides a place in which to keep an office and supplies, and becomes the place from which ministry to refugees occurs. A site can cost nothing, or it can require rent payment. It can be associated with a church or business, or can be independent of another organization.

How do you find a venue, a place, from which to minister to refugees? You must compose a priority list of what is most important for that ministry. Does the ministry venue need to be near a main transportation center, like a train station or taxi rank? Does it need to cost the ministry program nothing or can the program pay rent, and how much can it pay? Does the site need to be child-safe, as in will the refugees bring children with them? Do you need a site large enough, so the ministry can grow, or will you be a roving ministry?

After considering the priorities for a ministry site, the ministry team can begin the search for a venue. Often just driving around the area in which the refugees of interest live and praying asking God to show you a place works well. When God shows you a site, contact the manager, pastor, or owner and make an appointment to talk to him or her about using his or her building.

Another way to find a place in which to minister to refugees is by joining another ministry or organization. Consider the other ministries/churches or organizations in the area in which the ministry could best serve the refugee population you want to minister. Determine if one or more of these have the same Christian ethos as the ministry you want to offer for refugees. After that, approach the ministry/church or organization through a meeting telling them of your vision from God for the ministry, and asking them if you can use a room, hall, or any other place they have available.

Most importantly, before you seek an interview with a person, ministry, organization, or business from whom to borrow space, you must pray to seek God’s will about working with them. Some places God will shut the door to you seeking to work with them. He knows best what the underlying ethos is of that person, organization, or business. Even though you might not understand why God tells you not to seek a venue from them, trust He knows the heart of the property owner or manager. Look elsewhere once God closes a door for that site.

Resources

Funding

Resources are a necessity for any organization or ministry. Without them, people and tools would be unavailable for use or to help in the ministry to refugees. No organization could operate without people, pens, paper, pencils, etc.

Before you can do anything else, though, you must find resources and a way to pay for them. How will the ministry get funding? How will it get people to help? Connect with the people, churches, businesses, and organizations you visited in stage three. Determine if they give funds to ministries in the community. Ask how a person gets the funds from the person, church, business, or organization. Obtain the documents needed to submit a funding or grant request. Ask how soon you will hear about your application. If you have not received a reply from the people, businesses, churches, or organizations by the time they said they would decide, email or call them asking when you will know the result of your funding application.

Funding is a key challenge for organizations, profit and non-profit. Often you will need to get funding from several organizations to make sure you obtain all needs for the ministry. When considering refugee ministry, remember to approach the United Nations High Council on Refugees (UNHCR), USAID, and the department of social development or social services. Do not give up if you do not get funding immediately. God gave you the vision: He knows from where the funding can come. Keep praying asking His help and guidance on where to seek funding and to soften the hearts of the people or organizations so they will join you in ministry to refugees.

Supplies

Another part of getting resources is buying physical supplies. What is the program you will start first in the refugee ministry? What supplies will you need for that program? Paper, pens, pencils, and folders are a staple supply in every ministry and organization. Printing costs will occur for handouts for classes or other programs. Will you buy a printer or pay a local print shop? How will you manage that? Will your ministry distribute food, clothes, or blankets? You will need to buy the basic items you will distribute to refugees. For each ministry, places to sit and write will be necessary. These sorts of costs will need consideration in the funding or grant request you submit.

Besides tangible supplies, a ministry will often need people to help with the work. Maybe, you will work on your own at the start of the program. As the number of refugees helped increases, more personnel will need to be on the ministry team. Initially, the team members will be volunteers. After a ministry grows and funding is not as large of a concern because funding is steady, the ministry program can become an employer. Until that time, you will need to solicit and train volunteers.

While working with the refugees, leaders emerge among them. Approach these leaders to tell them of the need for volunteers on the team. Find out their gifting and training. Many refugees have extensive training. They graduated from a university in their home countries. With the refugee leaders as part of the ministry team, the refugee community begins to trust and respect the ministry. They then seek to bring more people needing help while often offering their own services to the ministry.

Besides ministry volunteers from the refugee community, you should consider and solicit volunteers from surrounding communities of the host city and country and city. Return to the organizations with which you made connection at the start of planning for this ministry. See if they would consider telling their employees about the refugee ministry and encourage them to offer their time to help refugees. Churches could put a notice in their Sunday bulletin or on their bulletin board. Employers could hold a monthly corporate employee community day and offer their manpower to the refugee ministry. Small business owners could offer their help by training refugees to work for them. The ways to get volunteers is endless. Talking to the volunteers before and after a volunteer day is also important. Teach them how to do the work for the day. At the end, ask them how the day went for them. What was a highlight for them? What did they find difficult? Debrief the volunteers and answer any questions or concerns. Remember, before soliciting volunteers, get your prayer supporters for the refugee ministry to pray that God would open the hearts of people to care for refugees and join their hands and heart to the ministry.

Advertise

Why you need to advertise? How will the refugee community you want to help realize help is available to them without the ministry being advertised somehow? Until refugees in the community learn about a new ministry and it takes root, it cannot make a big dent in the needs of the community.

How would you advertise to reach refugees? Contact other non-profit and non-governmental organizations telling them about the ministry you will soon offer and ask if you can place a flier in their offices. Tell local pastors and churches about the ministry soon to be operating. Make fliers and put them in the mail boxes in areas in which refugees live. Put fliers up on public notice boards at grocery stores, pharmacies, and other community stores. Put these fliers up in doctors’ offices, libraries, and schools. Go into the community where refugees live and talk to people on the street. Take a refugee leader with you who can talk about the ministry and about you as a person who cares about the refugees’ problems.

Paul wrote something like this. Getting your news out to the community in need requires going to them is similar to Paul’s writing when he said, Christians are to go to the people in need and tell them about God’s salvation made available to them. As a Christian ministry to refugees, the program did not come to you from God, so you can feel good about yourself because you are doing something for refugees. God’s vision came so the people He loves, which includes refugees, can experience His love. How will the refugees recognize God’s love if you do not get into their community and tell them about the refugee ministry, and why it’s available to help them? Ultimately, the refugee ministry is to tell the people God loves them so much that he provided a way to save them from their sins and give them eternal life with Him. That love is for eternity and for now. God’s love isn’t just for the future; God’s love is for now, too. Paul said in Romans 10:1, 10-14, 

¹ “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. ¹⁰ For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him. ¹³ For ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ¹⁴ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

The ministry from God’s heart to you as a vision to help the refugees comes because of God’s love for them. He loves them with a saving love for now and eternity. Just as the people cannot hear about God’s saving love without someone going to tell them, the refugees cannot hear about the refugee ministry without someone going into their communities to tell them it exists to help them because of God’s love for them. All who seek to minister must go where the people are to help them.

Advocacy

In the refugee ministry article titled Connecting, you understood many reasons exist for finding other organizations serving the refugee community. Connecting with the other organizations helps you network to meet more needs of refugees. It helps you find funding for the programs. Connecting aids you in knowing how to find funding or volunteers.

Besides advocating with other organizations, you must advocate for refugee ministry within the community and city, so people will accept refugees. Why is this necessary? Many times, people within a community, city, or nation protest out of fear about refugees entering their sphere. They are afraid refugees will take jobs away from them. Refugees willingly take lower paying jobs than nationals. Because of this, employers often choose refugees over nationals. Nationals fear the culture from which refugees come will bleed into their city or nation. They do not want genocide, war, or “strange” religions to affect their way of life. People-land owners or property managers-within the host city or country are prejudiced against refugees and asylum-seekers. They show it by charging refugees and asylum-seekers higher rent prices. Often, they will rent one room of a flat/apartment for half the price of the full price of the whole apartment. Often, they will build shacks in a back yard that do not have access to running water or sewerage. These landlords will then charge exorbitant rents so they pay their own mortgage for the property from the rents.

Ultimately, advocacy within the host community, city, and nation should aim to help the people know the plight of the refugees and why they had to flee their homes. It aims to touch the hearts of people, so they will care for the refugees instead of seeing them as a threat. You can advocate for refugees by speaking at churches, businesses, in councils, in neighborhoods schools and sports clubs, and with local government leaders. You cannot be the only one in a community to care for refugees and asylum-seekers. The task is a very large. It takes a community united to care for its aliens, orphans, and widows. God understood this and told the Israelites to care for their poor and powerless within their own communities.

Consider these verses from the Bible:

At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and shall deposit it in your town. The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. (Deuteronomy 14:28-29 [NASB])

“You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” (Leviticus 19:15 [NASB]) 

For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So, show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17-19 [NASB])

Other verses of direct teaching from Yahweh in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament, as well as teaching from prophets and New Testament writers, teach these lessons and more.

Conclusion

What is most important to know is God loves everyone. He is not prejudiced. God wants all people to come to a saving relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. At this point and throughout the ministry to refugees, prayer is paramount. God giving you His ministry vision for refugees shows His love for refugees. It also shows His love of you. He knows your heart and trusts you will follow His guidance to care for refugees. God knows you love Him in return by obeying His calling on your life.

By obeying God’s calling on your life, you show love to the refugees in the community, city, and nation. Love for anyone, including displaced people, occurs in several ways. It includes prayers for them, introducing them to God by telling them the gospel, listening to their stories, and seeking to minister to them by providing tangibly for their needs. Jesus modeled social ministry sandwiched by the gospel with His life. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, lifted the lame, restored hearing to the deaf, encouraged the fainthearted, and brought the good news of God’s saving grace to all people.

Jesus is your example of how to minister to refugees and the powerless. He began by Himself and began calling people to follow Him. Jesus trained His followers as to whom God loves and how to minister to the. He taught them to pray. God provided all things needed for the people Jesus and His followers encountered. You, also, at this starting stage of ministry to refugees, must pray, find a venue, get funding, buy resources, request volunteers, tell refugees about the ministry, advocate for the refugees, and pray more. The task is daunting at times. You will grow weary. People may misunderstand your intentions. Others may spread lies about your intentions or the ministry. Funding may not always come when you decide you need it. God may not seem to be listening to you. Jesus experienced many of these things and He said His followers would experience them, too. We are not greater than the Master. I encourage you at all time to keep the Lord before you. Pray continually. Seek God’s will constantly. Rest regularly. Learn when to stop for the day. Get help from friends when needed.

      The LORD bless you, and keep you;      The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you;
      The LORD lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.                            

       (Numbers 6:24-26 [NASB])

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[1] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/04/warp-and-weft-of-life.html

[2] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/conception-empowering-to-serve-refugees.html

[3] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/07/inception-working-with-refugees-stage.html

[4] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/07/inception-working-with-refugees-stage_27.html

[5] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/08/inception-working-with-refugees-stage.html

[6] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/in-their-words.html

[7] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/in-their-words-mataas-story.html

[8] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/06/in-their-words-petras-and-fabrices.html

[9] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/just-listen.html

Prayer and Abiding

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4 [NASB])

Abiding is active, not lazy. It is not a come when you want. Abiding is not a half-hearted coming to be with Jesus. We do not walk halfway down a street and say we are abiding with our friend. To abide with that friend, we must purposely and actively be in the person’s presence. We have commonalities with that person. Jesus brought us those commonalities through salvation-selfless love and an open door to the Father.

Abiding in John 15 is a continual activity. We don’t say, “Um, wait here; I’ll be back soon or sometime.” Abiding with God is an active, continual (unbroken) fellowship/relationship, a complete staying with God because of commonalities-our recognition of Jesus’ gift of redemption on which we trusted and received salvation, and because of our love for Him. It is the love of God, which we received, and which lives in us though the Holy Spirit.

This then means we can be in God’s presence always, and He desires that deep relationship with us. It is why His Son died for our sins. It means God is always present to help, guide, teach, and correct through His Holy Spirit, a constant influence, and His active hand in our lives to provide and protect. Not only are we to be continually in God’s presence, He is continually in ours dwelling in us to give us divine influence and energy for our daily lives and work.

Abiding is a dual being in relationship, me with God and God with me. Abiding is like a covenant; it is the fruit of the New Covenant given to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This dual relationship, covenant, if continual, through the Holy Spirit, shows itself in the fruits born of it-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, meekness, and self-control. Jesus’ death and resurrection made abiding possible. We must seek to abide in Christ.

With this understanding of abiding (purposely, continually, and actively being in relationship with the Lord because of our love for God and His love for us, and made possible because of His Holy Spirit living in us), we understand what Paul meant in Romans 8:26-27. Paul said,

“In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings to deep for words, and He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” [NASB]

For a person to pray with the Spirit’s interceding, that is with a depth that is inexpressible, the person must abide in Christ. Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from Me you can do nothing.” [NASB] Apart from Christ, we cannot be in God’s presence. We cannot relate to Him. When we are not abiding in Christ, we are like the branches that did not bear fruit, and were thrown away, dried up, and burned. The Holy Spirit is not actively guiding us without us abiding in Christ.

Now we can understand Paul’s verses of Romans 8:26-27 better. The Spirit can help our weakness in prayer if we are abiding in Christ.  The “help” the Spirit gives means to take hold with another, to walk alongside with and labor together. It is a cooperative action. The Spirit helps us pray, helps us relate to God, abide with Him. Why do we need this help? Because we are weak. We are frail-without sufficient strength-and unable to accomplish what we would like to do. We cannot pray as we want for God’s will to happen because we do not know exactly God’s will in situations. We pray-relate to God-because we love Him. We pray for another person because God loves that person and we want to be Christlike, have the mind of Christ. We want to love people as God loves people. WAIT!! Did you understand that. We pray for other people because of God’s love, which lives in us and shows itself as spiritual fruit. We should pray for a person because we love that person the way God loves that person. That is one of the greatest understandings about prayer.

Our prayers to God come from our relationship with Him. We want to be with Him and become like Him. We want to have the mind of Christ. As we are in relationship with God, our love for Him grows and our hearts are changed so that God’s will becomes our will. His mind becomes our mind. This means God’s love for another person becomes our love for that person. And ultimately, our love for the person, because of God’s love for the person, calls us to pray the will of God for that person.

Genuine prayer involves being in an abiding relationship with God that grows us to be more like Him-having His mind and bearing fruits of the Spirit-so that we have His will and love the people He loves. It allows us to pray the will of God for the person because we love him/her, not knowing necessarily what God’s will is. That is where the Holy Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words and asks the Father for His will-those things we do not know how to pray-to come about in the life of the person for whom we are praying.

What does all this mean? Genuine prayer comes from intentionally desiring to be in an active and continual deep relationship (abiding) so we know God better, know His will, and become more like Him. It is part of the forming us into Christlikeness, a growing to know God more and having His will as our will. Prayer is ineffectual unless we are abiding in Christ. Abiding is a continual two-way relationship (a covenant) with God that is an intentional, active, a continual, and a whole-hearted remaining with God. We abide with Him because of our love for Him and His love for us, which redemption through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection makes possible for each person.

Without abiding with Christ, our prayers do not include love for the other person because of God’s love. We are praying based on our tarnished and impure human understanding of love. Without abiding in Christ, our prayers do not incorporate asking God to do His will. We will be like the Gentiles about whom Jesus said, “They suppose they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7 [NASB]) Instead, as Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer, we should recognize Holy God, seek His kingdom, and His will.

Abiding in Christ makes prayer effective. As a result, we pray the will of God be done for the person whom God caused us to love enough to bring before His throne of grace. At that point, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us so that our desire for God’s will, unknown it may be to us, is spoken to the Father. This occurs because our wills unite with God’s will. Prayer helps us grow in our relationship with God. Prayer is relating with God. Abiding in Christ causes our prayers to grow us more like Him every day. That causes our prayers to align with the will of God because of His love for the people He has put in our hearts. We must ask ourselves, “Do I love the person enough to pray for God’s will to be done? Or am I loving the person my way, not God’s way, seeking my will to be done?” Remember, abiding in Christ is intentionally, actively, and continually seeking Him to know Him better, grow more like Him, and do His will because of our love for Him. Without abiding in Christ, we are no better than the Gentiles who prayed and weren’t heard. Jesus said they were like the withered vines that were gathered, thrown out, and burned.

Abiding in Christ is essential for growing more like Him and for genuine prayer. Jesus told the people how to abide in Him in John 15:7 & 10. In these verses, He said abiding with Him happens when you remain in God’s Word and keep His commands to love God and others.

Abiding is necessary for genuine prayer to occur. We must stay in God’s Word, reading, hearing, and studying it. We must also love the Lord, God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself. (Mark 12:30-31)

Abiding is necessary for genuine prayer to occur.

Do you pray without abiding?

Lord, please forgive me of my running off and living my own way. Help me to grow closer to You. Help me to become like Jesus and have His mind so that I love You and others with the love You put in me. Please help me to love other people enough to pray for them and pray for Your will to be done even if I don’t understand it. Help me to yield my will for Yours and pray, “Let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Help me not to allow my understanding of the person’s situation to sway me to pray what I think is best, but instead to pray for Your will even if the person will have to face difficult times. Often it is through difficult times that we return to You, asking for forgiveness, and seeking Your will, Lord. You have a greater plan than I know or understand. Help me to trust Your heart and follow Your way and will. Amen.

On His Altar of Rest and Peace

I’ve come to know the depth of anguish for a loved one and friend who has walked away from God or never come to know Jesus’ saving power in his life. When a loved who once gave his/her heart to Christ later faces the spellbinding deception of Satan and turns away from God, family and friends watch and fall on their knees before the Lord asking Him to call and convict that person to return to Him. Months turn into years and before you know it 3, 5, and 10 years or more have passed, and still the loved one has not turned back to God.

When we get to this point, we feel we have said everything in our heart begging God to intercede for that person. We feel we have used every word in the English language to bring the person before God. Possibly we wonder why we should continue to pray, not because we give up or don’t care about the loved one, but because no more words can be spoken than we have already said to the Father.

Next we remember Jesus’ story of the insistent widow and understand we should not stop praying for this loved one. But what more can we say? How can we express anew our heart’s desire for the person to return to the Lord, their Salvation? We remember, too, the earnest prayers of a righteous person avails much (James 5:16). Because of our love for the person, our love for God, and our obedience and faithfulness to Him, we will continue to pray. But how do we pray when all the words have been said?

I have reached this point. After hearing people for years saying they have prayed for the salvation of a loved one for 5, 10, or 20 years, I wonder how they could be so faithful in praying. What I have learned in my own experience is we do it because of love-love of the person and love of God. I, like many with and before me, reached the mental impasse of what more can I say when I have exhausted the words of the English language.

At this point, I remember and realize words are unnecessary. Paul taught about this state of being unable to express our hearts to God. He said in Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” [NASB] Words are unnecessary for intercession with the Father. The love and intent of our hearts speaks louder than feeble and insufficient words from our mouths.

Another thing I learned as I reached this impasse goes alongside what Paul wrote. This lesson did not come from study or from someone’s wisdom. It came from desperation as I sought the Lord. At the point I realized I could not put adequately into words what I desired the Lord to do and felt stymied by words, I threw my all before Him. I mentally in prayer put my heart on the altar before Him, opened it for Him and said, “See…Hear.” This was all I could think to do. It was my fragrant aroma to Him.

As I consider these two things, isn’t this the ultimate expression of interceding for someone? True intercession for someone includes desperate love for the person and for God, and putting our all on the altar before Him. Our all is our heart and life. It includes everything we are and have. What would you give for your loved one to come to know the Lord as Savior or to return to the Lord?

If you have come to the end of words in prayer, you are at the end of yourself. This is desperate love of the person. When you seek God even at the end of words and place your heart on the altar, you show you desperately love God because you know He is faithful to His covenant with you. He loves you enough to listen and answer your prayers. God provides each believer with His Spirit for such times as these-when our love is great, our faith in God remains strong, and our feeble vocabulary runs out.

At this point, recall Jesus’ words, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:23 [NASB]) Jesus did not say this only to sinners. He said this to all people, believers and unbelievers. At the point where we lay down our lives by offering our hearts on the altar and exhausting our vocabulary in earnest prayer so the Spirit intercedes for us, we have come to the end of ourselves. We have begun to seek the rest and peace of Christ.

When our wills join God’s will, our energy comes exclusively from Him and originates and resides in Him alone. Why? Because of His love and faithfulness to us, His children. And, because of our sole reliance upon Him.

For whom have you been praying for months and years? Have you exhausted your words? Have you grown tired in intercession for him/her? Have you come to the end of what you know except that God is love and He is faithful? That is when you can rest in Him by laying your will, your heart, on His altar. His Spirit will intercede for you. God hears. He is busy at work bringing the person you love to Him for the first time. He is busy working to bring your loved one back to Him.

Allow your love for and trust in God to bring you to the end of your striving.

Accept His rest as you lay your will on the altar of His rest and peace.

Oh, Lord God, I am tired. I am weary. I am heartsore for a loved one. I have prayed, and I trust You will hear and answer my prayer because You love this person, too. You want a personal relationship with each person and will not give up on reaching out to and convicting lost and rebellious people. Today, I come to the end of myself and seek rest in You. I give what is left of myself to You. I give You my heart, my will, and my love. My loved one I give to You. No words are left that I have not used as I prayed. You know my heart of love for this person and for You. I seek my rest in You, trusting You. Amen.