Last month, Gary Spangler gave a devotion to the Ability Ministry team and we talked about going deeper in our walk with the Lord. I have been praying and asking the Lord to help me “go deeper”. In response to that prayer, I’ve been focused on prayer and its impact on my life and those things in which I pray about. I’ve noticed a couple of things that I wanted to share with you.
It’s like there’s a bridge, and we pray on one side, expecting to get to the other side, and yet we can’t seem to get to the answer side of the bridge. I call it the bridge of unbelief. It seems like when we get to that bridge, we get nervous or anxious, and forget whose we are, and that we serve a mighty God.
Our team has all faced difficult times in both our personal lives and our professional lives. On top of all of our regular job responsibilities, we have also encountered obstacles with the loss of family members, technology roadblocks, fundraising efforts, travel, and just about anything you can think of that might arise from managing two residential facilities for adults with disabilities. And all of this is done on top of being a spouse, a parent, and even a child.
And yet, here we are. Given the difficulty of some of the issues our team has faced, I’m surprised that we’re spiritually standing.
We survived these things because we prayed for one another, because our faith carried us through when our knees were weak, and because we serve a God who loves us. God answered our prayers each and every time!
I think that’s part of the bridge of unbelief. We forget what prayers He has answered already. The Israelites spent 40 years wandering around because they grumbled, complained and forgot the millions of times before that He’d taken care of them. When we pray and get to the bridge, we should pray in confidence. We already know that He will meet our needs, He’s proven it over and over.
Psalms 5:3 reminds us to “Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”
I believe that God has great things in store for us here. God’s plan for this ministry involves each of us, using the gifts that He has given to us, for the specific purpose of furthering His Kingdom for persons affected by disabilities throughout the world.
It’s like God said, “I want Ryan, Gary, Jason and Rhonna to do this specific task, in this specific place and in the specific time.”
We need to pray together and make this ministry what God wants it to be.
My prayer for all of us is that when we encounter the bridge of unbelief, that God will help our unbelief.
