--"IN THIS MANNER, THEREFORE, PRAY....

"---Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from evil, For Yours is
the Kingdom and the power and the glory
forever. ~~~Amen." prayer [Matthew 6:9 thru 13]

~~Praying For Others, in Jesus Name~~

~~An old friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When I went to see her, I learned that somehow, though a professing Christian and lifelong churchgoer until the past decade, she'd forgotten or never understood or perhaps never accepted the most fundamental Christian teaching. As we talked, it became clear she considered herself such a bad person that God couldn't possibly want her with Him in heaven. When anyone around her mentioned salvation--or, really, anything about God--she got mad and changed the subject.

If I wanted to help her, I decided I couldn't evangelize. But I could pray. And I tried to pray. But how do you pray for someone whose situation seems hopeless?

I couldn't pray for healing. That clearly wasn't going to happen. She was getting sicker before our eyes as the cancer moved from organ to organ. I wanted to pray for peace, but I couldn't imagine any peace for her besides what she was rejecting.

My worst impediment to prayer was the conviction that I should be doing something, not "just praying," as I thought of it. . I should be convincing her, comforting her with the only message that could help me.

In the end, all I could muster was this weak, whisper of faith; that God still loved her and waited close by, eager to wrench her from the cave of misery she'd backed herself into to accept His embrace.

And that's what He did. In a final moment of consciousness, barely able to speak, much less resist those around her, my friend suddenly joined us in the Lord's Prayer.

Not reflexively or reluctantly but fervently. I could tell from her face she meant each word. She is now with the Lord in heaven. "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." ~~

--"Thank You, Father G-D, for staying with us and hearing, and answering our prayers. In Jesus Name. amen~"

--Daily Guideposts/PK~
~~~~~~~~

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]