Releasing Prayers

Very early New Year's morning of 1990, I was lying in bed praying for each child, grandchild, and my husband.  I prayed for each one individually--for specific needs and then for God to fill each with Himself.  Then an overwhelming feeling swept over me that I should release my whole family to God.

I bundled them all up in a package in my mind and gave them to God--for His complete will.  "Lord, do anything you need to them to make them what You want them to be.  Lord, I release them all to You for whatever You know is best for them--because I know You never make a mistake.  Lord, You know every facet and step of the future of each one of them, and You never make a mistake!"

There had been many times before, and have been since, that God has required me to pray releasing a family member to Him for His will--not mine.  Just one releasing prayer never has done it.  Whenever a new difficult decision has arisen, the releasing prayer has had to be prayed again and again.

But  these are not easy prayers to pray.  We all feel that somehow we own our possessions--the one we married, the ones to whom we gave birth, etc.  It is very difficult to give up those we call "family" to the will of another--even if it is God's.

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed:  for I know "whom" I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.  2 Timothy 1:12

Released--not just to anybody-but to God.  He knows the end from the beginning, knows all the "whys" and "what ifs" of our lives.  He alone is capable and worthy to have us entrust human possessions to Him.
(Evelyn Christenson-What Happens When We Pray)

I read the chapter from Joyce Meyer and wrote the post on Wednesday.  Then the next morning I decided to pick this book back up and it went hand in hand with the earlier post.  So coincidence?  Or maybe the Lord is trying to tell me something.

In my mind things are to happen in sequence.  You get married, have children, they graduate--immediately find employment and get settled, then you work until retirement--maybe travel--la la la la.  But then the economy explodes, factions of the globe are fighting, lay-offs everywhere, prices exploding, stock market plunging, etc. And I can find my mind starting to play the "what if" game--momentarily forgetting Who is really in charge.

So Lord, I "release" it all--the uncertainty, the future of my Your children that you have given me, our future and whatever that "future" will look like--in the future. (Sorry, had to say it one more time)

Evelyn Christenson is a true prayer warrior--I mean she spends hours--hours on her knees praying.  I don't know if I could ever reach that--but maybe one day my hands will just be too tired to wrap around my weaknesses and they will be forever released unto Christ.