A Heart Wide Open: MY PRAYER QUILT

"The Lord sees the good people and listens to their prayers." ~ 1 Peter 3:12

I think we forget sometimes that the power of prayers is an amazing thing! Why do we pray? We pray to offer our praise, thanksgiving, and worship; to ask for guidance, strength, and wisdom; and to lay our burdens, worries, and struggles at His feet. Prayer is communication with our Father!! He wants to hear from us continuously. First Thessalonians 5:17-18 tells us to "pray continually...for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." The more time we spend in prayer, the closer we grow to our Father.

Have you ever been in a place where you felt so weak that you couldn't pray? That is when that intercessory prayer comes in to play. When others jump in and lift you up to our Heavenly Father. I saw a posting from a childhood friend and her mother today. She has been lifted up in prayer over the last couple of months because of her diagnosis of colon cancer. She has been through tests, etc. and they have been waiting for results. Today, the scan came back and showed that there was no cancer. It was once there, and she was to the point of seeing the surgeon and oncologist. Now, there is NO CANCER! Only our God is that big. He is bigger than cancer.

As we have been struggling with some of the same testing and waiting for results over the last few months, there have been times, when all I could do was cry. It was the prayers of others that gave me strength to cry out to my God!! It was through those intercessory prayers from family, church family, friends, and people I don't even know from across this country that have brought strength to my family, and also brought reports of NO CANCER!!

I wanted to share pictures of a prayer quilt that was given to me by the Bayside Community Church in Clearwater, FL. I was dedicated in this church as a baby, many years ago (about 42 to be exact). Some of the people that attended at that time still go to this church; however, it used to run around 70-100 people and now there are approximately 1500 (not sure exactly) that attend this church. Ladies at their church have a tremendous ministry of making quilts for people, then having threads that are untied. They send it through Sunday School Classes, and place in their Foyer for people to pray, then tie. I was so excited when my parents brought this to me. This quilt will follow me to the hospital and I will be covered in many prayers-some from those I know very well, and some from those I have never met. I have posted the pictures below. They asked my parents if I had any interests, and they said music. They chose to use music material on the back, and scriptures from the Psalms on the front. It is beautiful!

A big thank you to my family, friends, my CrossPointe family, King School family, and Bayside Community. Your prayers have been heard and felt!