PRAYER IS POWERFUL!
I could stop at that statement right there and complete my
devotion for the day. But, I am a woman
of many words, so I will continue. My
last semester in nursing school can go down in the books as the hardest one
yet. The material was challenging, kids
seemed to be sick weekly and work picked up.
Satan loved how fast my mind spun daily.
He could enter easily and fire darts continuously; destroying my focus
and stealing my sight. Each visit to
school, each test taken, each chapter study and each day lived picked away at
my spirit slowly. Eventually, I had
nothing left. . .or so I thought!
In comes our Heavenly Father, sending an angel to work mightily
to clear my vision. I did not mention we
began the process of selling our home and seeking out others to potentially
purchase. Well, our realtor agent became
my angel. She offered support, Truth and
clarity. She offered me a CD of a sermon
which spoke about God’s Grace. Yeah, I
get God offers grace over our sins, to forgive and redeem, right? Well, my friend, I learned about another kind
of grace given FREELY by our God. That
is, enabling grace!
Let us break this down: enable means to give authority or
means to do something; grace of God is free and unmerited favor. So, God FREELY provides authority, strength
and ability to complete the tasks set before us when we believe and hold faith
in Him. Did you catch the last
part? God cannot do His part if we do
not do ours. Faith and belief in Him
opens up the door for enabling grace to enter.
Lifting your hands in surrender allows His Spirit to fill your heart,
mind and soul. How do I know this? I experienced it. . .
Once I learned about such enabling grace, my eyes opened to
the pit I dug and the bottom with which I hit hard! Enough is enough! I knew I could not remain where I sat and
expect different results. I fell in
surrender, lifted my arms upward and ask for some mighty work to be done. I began by spending time with God every
morning, first thing (like I used to) and listening. God asked me to allow Him to work, quit this
worry stuff and demand that Satan get behind.
And so I did. I spoke Truth loud
enough to send Satan back where he came from.
God asked another thing of me that seemed different than any other
request before. He asked that I
fervently pray over the college and ask specific prayers for my
classmates. Before, I would send up a
prayer over all the class in general and for the day overall. But, what He asked was much more. Each morning I drove to class, I prayed. I entered the parking garage and drove each
level and prayed. I pulled out specific
names, asking blessing over whatever situation may come to that
individual. I prayed! I prayed!
I prayed!
Come to find out, I was not alone! My vision slowly cleared and with each prayer
lifted I realized that 27 other individuals experienced the same heartache,
difficulty and challenges I did. My
situation was no different. Each of us
held the same root problem: we allowed our spirits to be so damaged that Satan
was having a field day on our hearts.
The damage manifested itself in various forms. In my case, I cried violent tears, sought an
escape, wanted to give up and wasn’t the most pleasant person to live with at
the time. I was simply a hot mess! As I began to pray, peace entered. I even brought my husband on board and we
prayed diligently every night. This
brought us even closer and again, I knew I was not alone.
I would end this with saying that His most powerful,
enabling grace came the last day of class.
I was in constant prayer, the morning did not start well and I cried
three times before entering my final. My
mind could not focus on the test, only the possibility of failing. I did not feel confident in the material on
the test and my hands shook 90% of the time while taking my final. I left feeling like a failure. I ran straight to God. . .and guess what He
said. . .
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
produces perseverance. Let perseverance
finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask
God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to
you. But when you ask, you must believe
and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and
tossed by the wind. That person should
not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in
all they do.” James 1:2-8
When you ask, you must believe and have NO doubts in our
mighty God. At that point, I
surrendered. I gave the results to God
and knew that whatever the end, He would work all things out for my good as
long as I had faith. And, WOW, did He do
more than I even asked for or imagined. The
test result was the best one I completed over the semester and passed me in the
class. I was able to join my classmates,
the ones lifted specifically by name that morning, in our pinning ceremony the
following evening.
I cannot begin to show appreciation to God for bringing us
through. He covered each of us with enabling
grace to see this journey to the end. We
now can begin the next chapter in life, better prepared and stronger because of
the trials we just survived. We each
will be mighty fine nurses. I am so
proud of each of my classmates and thankful for the ways each touched my life
the past two years. They will be missed,
but I know the path they take will lead them in great adventures and they will
touch many other lives just as they did mine.
God thank you for all You brought the Class of 2014
through. I share this experience so
others might realize the power of prayer.
Keep praying harder than the devil can work!
Sheree Craig
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