Mom's Blog - He is faithful!!

My prayer life as a teenager–it all began when I received Christ as a three year old. I was a pastor’s daughter and the oldest of three children. My mother spent time teaching and training me. In a revival service I went to the altar on my own to receive Christ’s payment for sin. From that time I have talked with the LORD.

I remember sitting/swinging in my tree swing singing to the LORD when I was 3-5. I would sing praises and whatever came to my mind to tell Him. I remember chills running through me at times as I sang my heart to Him. Thus began my journey of prayer. But you wanted to know about the teen years.

As a teen I remember the LORD teaching me about prayer through answered and “unanswered” prayer. I learned by experiencing some “unanswered” prayer and through Bible reading that sin separates us from fellowship with the LORD and He is not required to hear our prayer if there is sin in our lives that we have not repented of–grieved over and forsaken. He taught me also that selfish prayers may not be answered. Motives for our requests come heavily into play here. Why are you asking for this?

I learned that He may say no to a request that is not in the best interest of myself and others. Sometimes I get a no so He can teach me something. When I was a young teen I remember talking to the LORD in our front yard. I was trying to muster up enough faith for the LORD to heal my mother. She had a rare skin disease that caused her to break out in hives all over when anything rubbed against her. She thought she was allergic to my Dad because when she undressed at night and her clothes rubbed her skin she began to itch terribly and spent hours in hives. She actually had dermographia. You could write on her with your fingernail and it would come up in hives. Mom was taking an expensive pill each day that basically took my mother from me. I wanted her back. I asked God to heal her. He didn’t. I wondered why. Was the Bible not true? Was I lacking faith? Was I not good enough to get a yes from God? And then God answered my prayer–but in a more beneficial way for me and my family. We learned how to control Mom’s illness through healthy eating, and that helped all of us! God is SO WISE!

When I was first saved I didn’t know that God had given me eternal life that could not be taken away from me. I thought it was conditional. Although I loved the LORD I feared losing my salvation by not being good enough. Some of my prayers in my teen years were a result of that misunderstanding. The scriptures do say that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. I still fear the LORD–because I will stand before God at the judgement seat of Christ, and although my salvation is assured the scriptures say that we will give an account for every idle (useless) word we have spoken. We will have to answer for how we used our time and resources while on earth. We will be rewarded or our rewards will be eternally lost. According to scripture we will be entrusted with responsibilities in eternity based on how we handled them on earth. What you believe affects your prayer life.

During my teen years, with the exception of a 6 month period when I got my eyes on people instead of on Christ, I truly wanted to please the LORD; but I spent a lot of time sinning and confessing sin and begging God to help me quit sinning. I had a love/hate relationship with my sin. You won’t quit a sin until you no longer love it.

By the time I was an older teen the LORD had taught me much about prayer. From that time until now I have had an unending succession of provision for my needs.

Next time I will tackle answers to prayer, LORD willing.
Thank you for asking, Judy,
with love,
Mrs. Corbett