I cry out to the Lord. I pray to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my problems to Him. I tell Him my troubles. When I am afraid, You, Lord, know the way out. (Verses 1-2)
I met Dorothy Sawer this morning when I read the Los Angeles Times. I kinda fell in love with her. Gap-toothed and lovely, wearing a floral print dress splashed with orange flowers with blue splotches that look like water flowing around the fabric, Dorothy sits in a picture of herself holding her large, worn Bible. She is beautiful. She's Liberian. A mother of six children. A wife abandoned several years ago by her husband. When she was a child, though, she had an encounter that changed her life forever. Dorothy saw a flash of light in which a white man with long hair stood with his back to her. A second flash of light took the vision away. She's always believed it to be an angel of God. From that time on, Dorothy has had a gift. She has premonitions. She has a dogged faith in the power of Christ to heal. Dorothy has been a prayer warrior at her local church for the past four years--Conqueror's Tabernacle. Her battle now? Ebola. It has taken the lives of her pastor and his wife, whose generosity of spirit put them in direct contact with neighbors dying from the virulent disease. When the pastor's wife became ill, Dorothy cared for her, holding her hand and praying for her morning and night. The prayer warrior's prayers couldn't save her pastor's wife. Nor her pastor.
When Dorothy thought her stomach was on fire, when the fever hit, she fasted and prayed for three days. When the symptoms didn't ease up, she left her kids in the care of her eldest son and went to a treatment center for Ebola. Diagnosed with the disease, Dorothy asked for only one thing. A Bible. Unafraid. No doubt. She was going to live. Lying in her sweat and pain, Dorothy prayed and read her Bible for many days. Then one night she felt a light tap on her shoulder. "I think it was the Spirit of God," she explains. Because? The next morning she was fine. Ebola exited her body as quickly as it had entered, and Dorothy went home.
Next to succumb to the symptoms of the disease was her son who'd kept the family together for her. He left the family as she did to go to the treatment facility. Dorothy heard nothing for the days her son was gone. But with her Bible opened and with much loud praying (a thing she says: "I pray loud and louder."), she fought a spiritual battle over her son's physical one. And...he came home well.
I know it's not the outcome for so many who love Jesus. Dorothy's explanation of why others have died when she lived: "I believe it must be God's will. Or maybe some people don't have faith that they can make it...or give up hope." But for me, today when I read of her trust I was struck by the fact that Ebola isn't too difficult for our God. In the midst of Dorothy's excruciating pain and burning fever, she looked at Jesus, not at the disease. I was also struck by the fact that for Dorothy, it was going to be okay either way out. Here or there. Accustomed to crying out her troubles and the troubles of others to the Lord, she handled scourge the same way she handled everything else in her life--with prayer. Loud prayer!
She continues to pray for those in her neighborhood and in her church, but she doesn't touch them anymore. Life goes forward with problems and troubles. Just like it does for us. Dorothy's habit was spiritual warfare. Perhaps the enemies of her friends and neighbors in the small Liberian village where she lives are more obvious to her than our enemies are to us. But if we don't know how to war on our knees in times of personal peace, we will find ourselves weak and vulnerable in the trenches. What a privilege it is that we have the ear of the Commander in Chief of everything! Pray loudly into it today your every trouble, your every need. The battle is His! And we, God's warrior princesses and princes. Gear up! Fully armed. This battle isn't for the weak of heart and mind.
I met Dorothy Sawer this morning when I read the Los Angeles Times. I kinda fell in love with her. Gap-toothed and lovely, wearing a floral print dress splashed with orange flowers with blue splotches that look like water flowing around the fabric, Dorothy sits in a picture of herself holding her large, worn Bible. She is beautiful. She's Liberian. A mother of six children. A wife abandoned several years ago by her husband. When she was a child, though, she had an encounter that changed her life forever. Dorothy saw a flash of light in which a white man with long hair stood with his back to her. A second flash of light took the vision away. She's always believed it to be an angel of God. From that time on, Dorothy has had a gift. She has premonitions. She has a dogged faith in the power of Christ to heal. Dorothy has been a prayer warrior at her local church for the past four years--Conqueror's Tabernacle. Her battle now? Ebola. It has taken the lives of her pastor and his wife, whose generosity of spirit put them in direct contact with neighbors dying from the virulent disease. When the pastor's wife became ill, Dorothy cared for her, holding her hand and praying for her morning and night. The prayer warrior's prayers couldn't save her pastor's wife. Nor her pastor.
When Dorothy thought her stomach was on fire, when the fever hit, she fasted and prayed for three days. When the symptoms didn't ease up, she left her kids in the care of her eldest son and went to a treatment center for Ebola. Diagnosed with the disease, Dorothy asked for only one thing. A Bible. Unafraid. No doubt. She was going to live. Lying in her sweat and pain, Dorothy prayed and read her Bible for many days. Then one night she felt a light tap on her shoulder. "I think it was the Spirit of God," she explains. Because? The next morning she was fine. Ebola exited her body as quickly as it had entered, and Dorothy went home.
Next to succumb to the symptoms of the disease was her son who'd kept the family together for her. He left the family as she did to go to the treatment facility. Dorothy heard nothing for the days her son was gone. But with her Bible opened and with much loud praying (a thing she says: "I pray loud and louder."), she fought a spiritual battle over her son's physical one. And...he came home well.
I know it's not the outcome for so many who love Jesus. Dorothy's explanation of why others have died when she lived: "I believe it must be God's will. Or maybe some people don't have faith that they can make it...or give up hope." But for me, today when I read of her trust I was struck by the fact that Ebola isn't too difficult for our God. In the midst of Dorothy's excruciating pain and burning fever, she looked at Jesus, not at the disease. I was also struck by the fact that for Dorothy, it was going to be okay either way out. Here or there. Accustomed to crying out her troubles and the troubles of others to the Lord, she handled scourge the same way she handled everything else in her life--with prayer. Loud prayer!
She continues to pray for those in her neighborhood and in her church, but she doesn't touch them anymore. Life goes forward with problems and troubles. Just like it does for us. Dorothy's habit was spiritual warfare. Perhaps the enemies of her friends and neighbors in the small Liberian village where she lives are more obvious to her than our enemies are to us. But if we don't know how to war on our knees in times of personal peace, we will find ourselves weak and vulnerable in the trenches. What a privilege it is that we have the ear of the Commander in Chief of everything! Pray loudly into it today your every trouble, your every need. The battle is His! And we, God's warrior princesses and princes. Gear up! Fully armed. This battle isn't for the weak of heart and mind.
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