Newsletter

December 2010 Newsletter

Gift of Prayer by Pat Harley

The people had waited a long time for sure. Isaiah had spoken of a Son to be born who would be a Light shining in the darkness. Now 750 years later He had finally arrived.

His credentials were pretty awesome:

• Wonderful Counselor
• Mighty God
• Everlasting Father
• Prince of Peace

Wonderful Counselor. When you look at that list Wonderful Counselor really is all we need. We desperately need someone to counsel us and teach us how to live this life in a way that is satisfying. For those of us who have lived life apart from Christ, well, it really doesn't work that well for us.

Mighty God. It is not enough to just point the way to live. Someone has to do it through us! We need a Spirit stronger than we to give us the power to actually live the way the Counselor shows us.

Everlasting Father. It rings of eternity. So if God will be our everlasting Father than surely there is a way for us to live with Him as everlasting beings.

Prince of Peace. Not only peace, but peace from THE Prince. Royalty. Authority. Majesty. Jesus!

And because he came to earth we can go to heaven not only for eternity but also daily in prayer. And prayer changes things.

During His life on earth He taught us a good bit about this earth-heaven communication. Jesus prayed for a blind man to be healed and he was. Jesus prayed that a dead man would be raised and he was. I like those kinds of stories. But Jesus the Prince of Peace prayed "Remove this cup from Me" and it wasn't. Those are the kinds of prayers that are troubling - those prayers that are sent up with such fervency and anguish that are not, in our way of thinking, answered at all.

Yet had Jesus' prayer been answered with "yes!" we would have no Savior, no Prince of Peace. If my prayer to prosper our family's company had been answered I would never have known the power of God as He took that company away and showed us greater things in doing so.

If I had immediately been healed from a very painful injury, I would not have known the presence of God in suffering.

I can't find good things in every difficulty that I have prayed about but I can find good things in most of them and the rest I leave to the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace and Everlasting Father.