Prayer Archives - Uncommon Stories

Coming Home

Martha Brehm / Encouraging Story, Inside Stories, Prayer / home / 13 Comments

August 12, 2020

Let me start by giving you a description of the house in which I was raised. Imagine a small town of around 4,000 in the early 1960s. Kids played outside in the neighborhood without their parents knowing where they were. The main rule was to be home by dark. I rode my bike to school for years and played tag and wiffle ball in our big backyard. The house itself was white with dark shutters and had two stories. There was a sidewalk from the street that led to the front door. By the edge of the sidewalk, half way up, was a lamppost that glowed warmly at night to light your way.

The sidewalk ended on the front porch of my house staring straight through the two large windows of our living room. To the left was a door to our garage and to the right was our front door. The front door was nothing fancy but had two components. The first was a screen door, which was really only screened on the top half and pretty flimsy wood below. The second was the actual main door of solid wood. My mom loved the fresh air, so the all-wood door was hardly ever closed; only at night when we went to bed. Even though we had air conditioning, it was brand-new back then and we rarely ever used it because it would “run the electric bill up.” So instead, the house was filled with the gentle breeze that flowed through the open windows and the sound of the wind chimes that hung outside.

I hope my description above made you envision a place that was cozy and warm and inviting, because it was. And I want you to take that feeling and hang on to it as I use it to talk about something else. Something that’s more important than my childhood home. The topic of the Inside Story today is really about prayer.

With that thought in mind, let me finish describing one more important detail. The screened door always squeaked when you opened or closed it. My parents never fixed it and I’m pretty sure that was on purpose so they would know whenever we went in or out. Later as a parent, I understood the wisdom in that.

And now fast forward to a few years later when I had grown up and moved out of the house. I still remember the feeling of walking back in that front door. It was being home, like putting on your well-worn, broken-in sneakers or your favorite shirt that’s been washed a million times. It’s the feeling of knowing you can be yourself; that you can let go of all the stuff. It’s a place of rest. Mostly, it’s the feeling of love.

As I would walk through the door, my mom would always instantly appear. The front door faced the stairs leading to the bedrooms upstairs. As I came in, I would see her scurry around the top of the stairs and almost run down. I’m sure it was the squeaky screen door that alerted her. She knew, and so did I, at the sound of that silly door, that I was home. It didn’t matter what time of day it was, she would always appear just as I came walking through the door.

Prayer is like that for me. The very same feeling. It’s going home. The only thing I’m required to bring is myself. I can pour out whatever is inside and be just who I am – no pretense and no masks. It’s the feeling of being loved and accepted. And God, just like my mom, is always there waiting for me to walk in the door. Thrilled that I made it and happy I’m there.

It’s always crazy to me when I hear all these different formulas to pray, like someone’s giving you some kind of script. Prayer is really just a conversation. And who wants to have a conversation with someone who is reciting memorized lines or fixated on maintaining a certain pattern? I’m not advocating being irreverent, I’m just advocating being real. John records that the Father is seeking those who will worship in spirit and in truth. One commentary mentions that “spirit” is far more than an outward ceremony, it is an internal thing. And to worship in “truth” is to worship authentically or in relation to reality. Another commentary translates that as “with nothing hidden.”

It’s great to be somewhere where you don’t have to hide anything. Where you can be authentic and genuine and there is no pretending. Where your thoughts are known without even having to voice them. And where you are loved just for being you. This brings us back around to home. Because for me, prayer is just like walking in that old screen door. It’s coming home.

I realize as I write this story that not everyone has a home experience like mine. I have friends whose homes were filled with violence, abuse and pain, and I have friends who have been completely homeless. Habitat for Humanity conducted a writing contest over the topic, “The True Meaning of Home.” One of the school-age finalists, wrote this, “Home means an enjoyable, happy place where you can live, laugh and learn. It’s somewhere where you are loved, respected and cared for. When you look at it from the outside, home is just a house. A building. Maybe a yard. But on the inside, it’s a lot more than wood and bricks. The saying ‘Home is where the heart is’ says it all.” They went on to finish, “Everybody deserves to know the true meaning of home.”

I think Jesus would agree with this young contest winner as well. The night before his death, Jesus told his closest friends, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” Even if we don’t have the home we long for in the here and now, there is a perfect home offered to us in the future. Prayer connects us with that home until we get there. Because in the end, we all want to go home.

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“It’s who you are and the the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for; those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself – Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” John 4:23-24 Msg

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me were I am. John 14:2-3 NLT

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To check out all the Pinterest Pin quotes for “Coming Home”, click here.

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house in the winter — A winter time picture long ago of a pretty special place 🙂

Miracles Never Cease

Martha Brehm / Big Stories, Inspirational Story, Miracles, Prayer, True Charity Initiative / 2 Comments

June 24, 2017

Miracles still happen. They can happen with unexpected timing and in unexpected places. Miracles can happen on any old day.

One specific “any old day” a few years ago, I went to a weekend conference called True Charity Initiative put on by James and Marsha Whitford. During the first session Friday evening, I glanced over the dimly-lit room and thought I saw Rick. His wife Theresa was one of my friends whom I had met in a women’s group several years earlier. The man I saw that night wore a dark colored overcoat, but in the poor lighting it was difficult to tell whether or not it was Rick. As I sat studying the man, the program began and I had to shift my attention over to the speaker who had stepped up to the podium and was beginning his talk. Later that night, when I looked back across the audience, the man in the overcoat was gone. Even after the conference ended, I searched the foyer outside but there was still no sign of the man in the overcoat I had seen earlier.

On following day, I managed to arrive early (which is a miracle in itself) for the Saturday morning sessions. Coffee and snacks had been placed out in the foyer and groups of people were already conversing around them. I made my way to the food, filling a small plate and then grabbing some coffee. As I stood there with food in hand, I heard someone say hello as they placed a hand on my shoulder. Turning around, there stood before me the man in the overcoat from the previous night.

Close up and in good lighting, it was easy to tell it was Rick. He asked if I had talked to Theresa recently. I honestly admitted that I had not. Upon learning that, he smiled and said, “We have had a miracle.”

“Great!! I love miracles!!” I responded. “Tell me about it.”

Rick just continued looking at me and repeated what he had said, but in a slightly different way. This time he said, “God did a miracle.” His facial expressions told me no further information was coming so we stood there in a moment of silence.

As I looked at the man in front of me, I began to notice there was something different. At first, I wasn’t sure, but then I looked into his eyes and I knew. “You’re the miracle,” I said. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

A huge smile came over his face as he replied, “It is.” Then he added, “Theresa told me that the two of you had asked for a miracle. I thought you should know, He answered.”

Now to understand why this was so extraordinary you’ll need a little background. Several years prior, when Theresa and I were going to our group once a week, we had made the decision to stay after each meeting and pray for Rick. In John 10:10, Jesus said his purpose in coming was to “give life – life in all its fullness.” Theresa wanted Rick to have the life that Jesus offered. So, we spent four or five minutes every Thursday asking for exactly that. But when our group ended eight months later, she hadn’t see any changes in Rick. Nothing at all.

When a scenario like this occurs, there are multiple possibilities. There are some people I know who believe there is no God. They would say we were wasting our breath – no one was listening. And there are those who believe there is a God but that He doesn’t care about what we want and doesn’t bother to pay attention. To add to the confusion, there are plenty more who believe there is a God who hears and cares but wonder why prayers seem to go unanswered. So, does asking for what we want really make a difference? Well, Jesus had some pretty interesting things to say about that.

One day Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. Jesus did this by giving them a sample prayer and then followed it up by telling them a story. Here’s how it goes in Luke 11:5-10 in the NIV translation – “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

As Jesus told this story, he chose some pretty intriguing verbs when he talked about asking. They are present imperatives which indicates an ongoing action. The Amplified Bible translates it this way – “So I say to you, ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking [persistently], receives; and he who keeps on seeking [persistently], finds; and to him who keeps on knocking [persistently], the door will be opened.

So for Theresa and me, the fact that nothing seemed to be happening didn’t keep us from continuing to ask. We just kept asking. We knew that just because we didn’t see anything happening didn’t mean that we never would. And here I was, a few years later, coming face to face with exactly the thing for which we had prayed. Life is a miracle and Rick had found it.

Now to be clear, not everything that we ask for, even persistently, is given to us. In fact, one of my children, when they were younger, used to ask why they couldn’t get a million dollars if they kept asking. Jesus’ brother James had a response for those type of questions. He said in James 4:3, “Yet even when you do pray, your prayers are not answered, because you pray just for selfish reasons.” Perhaps that’s why Jesus said we needed to seek and keep on seeking. Because if we are truly seeking God, and keep on seeking Him, then with time our hearts begin to look and think like his. His desires and plans begin to become our desires and plans. At this point, we begin to ask for the very things God wants to bring about, and that’s a place where miracles never cease.

And what is a miracle? Miriam Webster’s definition is “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs”. Rick understood that sometimes we can be the miracle. And what brings about miracles? Perhaps for some of them, God uses the prayers of those who doesn’t give up asking.

If you’re reading this and you’ve had a miracle in your life as a result of prayer, I’d love to hear it. Just write it in the comments. There is nothing more encouraging than to know that God is still in the business of doing extraordinary things. So, share your miracle! And if you’re needing a miracle, may this give you the hope you need to just keep asking, seeking, and knocking.

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“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

“Jesus replied, ‘There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.'” Luke 18:27 CEV

“He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” Job 5:9 NIV

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In closing, a final shout out to True Charity Initiatives. Thanks for your continued passion and hard work in addressing poverty. Check out their website at truecharity.us

Here’s a few of the Pinterest Pins that go with the story.