In almost every virtual meeting I’ve been in lately, someone is told “you’re muted.” Then it was my turn. There I was, talking away in a virtual meeting until I saw someone cup his hand to his ear. Whoops! My mic was still muted, and no one had heard anything I was saying.
Do you ever feel like this when praying? You’re pouring out your heart to God, but it’s as if your mic is off and He isn’t hearing you. I remember feeling like that as a young mom struggling with my child’s school frustrations. I’d share my prayer requests at Bible study, but was often given suggestions and recommendations instead of prayer. Still, I knew they had heard me … but did God?
I craved the great exchange offered in Philippians 4:6-7:
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. I wanted not only to be heard, but to experience that peace.
Soon, God answered the cry of my heart. Most mornings, I’d push my toddler in a stroller while walking my first-grade son to school. After the school bell rang, I’d stand at the edge of campus chatting with the crossing guard while my young daughter sat contentedly in her stroller eating Cheerios. Often, we’d pray for our kids, the school staff, and safety at that busy crosswalk. Then one day she suggested we start a Moms in Prayer group for our school. Boy, I didn’t know what I was missing!
We invited other moms to join us, contacted the Moms in Prayer Area Coordinator, and then my older sister came and led us through our first hour of prayer. I loved being able to pray my requests and have others help me lift my burdens to the Lord in one-accord agreement prayer.
Each week we’d start by praising God for a characteristic or attribute, then we’d have silent confession, followed by a time of thanksgiving. We did all that before we ever prayed a single request. Remembering who God is and thanking Him for what He is doing has been huge in preparing my heart to pray the big requests.
During intercession, after I pour out my heart to God, to have a mom come alongside and pray from a fresh, Holy Spirit-directed perspective reminds me why I need prayer partners.
We are truly better together. At last, thanks to Moms in Prayer, I was experiencing that peace that God promises when I hand him my worries.
My kids are now young adults, and I continue to pray for them in a Moms in Prayer group. The amazing answers to prayer could fill a book or two (and have!). Now I rarely feel like my prayers are muted before God. But when that does happen, I know I have prayer partners that will come alongside me and pray with me for those big, seemingly immovable mountains. Then we watch and see God do “more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
The pinnacle came at my son’s college graduation. As bright and creative as he has always been, he struggled in school because of dyslexia. I remembered wondering if he’d ever even graduate from high school, much less attain his lifelong dream of attending “film school.” Then there he was at his college graduation, flanked by fellow Christian film majors, wearing his gold honors cord with “magna cum laude” highlighted in the graduation program. Tears came to my eyes thinking of all the prayers that had been poured out on his behalf over the years. Even though at times I might have felt “muted” before God, I have no doubt He was listening and waiting to pour out His answers in His perfect timing.
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Cyndie Claypool de Neve, a new Moms in Prayer International board member, is the author of “God-Confident Kids: Helping Your Children Find True Purpose, Passion and Peace” and the co-author with Moms in Prayer International President, Sally Burke, of “Unshaken,” “Raise Them Up,” the “Start with Praise” devotional, and the “Unshaken Study Guide.” Find out more at www.cyndiedeneve.com.