Prayers for Prodigals_Excerpt

Casting Cares

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

How do you do it, Lord?
You’re able to take all of the cares of the world on your shoulders,

including my cares for my child.

You’re able to carry them continually!
Not only do you carry them, you’re also able do something about them.
How amazing you are! Thank you for caring for me and my child.
“You, O God, are strong,” and “you, O Lord, are loving”

(Psalm 62:11–12).

I come to you today to cast all my cares on you.
More than anything else, I ask that my daughter will “come to know”

you, Lord Jesus (Ephesians 4:20).

I long for her to have a living relationship with you.

If she walked with you, how blessed she would be!

I cast this care and ask that your Spirit draw her to you.
I pray she will repent and turn to you and prove her repentance

by the things she does (Acts 26:20).

I’m also concerned for her safety, Lord. The choices she’s made and

the friends she’s chosen have frequently put her in harm’s way.

I know only part of it. But you know all of it.
Only you can keep her safe, Lord, though I try too.
Your “forces are beyond number,”

and those under your command are “mighty” (Joel 2:11).

Please send your angels to watch over her.
May your “power and might” protect her, Lord
(Jeremiah 16:21).
I cast this care and place her in your arms again.

There’s no better place for her to be.

I also lift her future to you, Father.
I pray she will seek your kingdom with her heart, mind, and strength

and work for what pleases you.

I pray that you will be in her and she in you (John 17:23)

so that she will have the joy of knowing you “face to face”
(1 Corinthians 13:12)!

Until that day, I pray that your “divine power” will give her

everything she needs “for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

You have given us such “very great and precious promises,” Lord

(2 Peter 1:4)!

I praise you that the weight of my cares, no matter how heavy they

may seem to me, are light to you and easy for you to carry.

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,

who daily bears our burdens” (Psalm 68:19).

I cast all my cares upon you!

Taken from Prayers for Prodigals, © 2011 by James Banks. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids  MI 4950l.  All rights reserved

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The Wizard of Ahs

“Lord, Bend Me”

Giving Prayer New Priority

It turns ordinary mortals into men of power . . . It
brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.
There is no power like that of prevailing prayer.
Samuel Chadwick, The Path of Prayer1

His name was Floyd King, but we called him “The Wizard of Ahs.”

It wasn’t a nice name, and he didn’t deserve it.

Pastor King had come out of retirement to shepherd the Nazarene church in the sleepy desert town of Holtville, California. I was thirteen when I met him. My older brothers and I would sit in the fourth pew from the front, counting the number of times Pastor King would hesitate and say “ah” between points in his sermon. Like Joseph’s brothers, we meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

It made us pay attention. And as we watched and listened, we were able to observe a true believer in the twilight of his life. Little did I know that his impact on my life would last well beyond his years.

Not long after Pastor King’s arrival, my father was hospitalized for major surgery. Pastor King would travel over twenty-five miles every day to call on Dad and to pray for him. He even took the time to give Dad a shave each morning. After that, my brothers and I dared not breathe a word about “The Wizard of Ahs.” Dad wouldn’t have it.

When I began to question my faith a year later, Pastor King was there again, patiently listening to my doubts (I had a lot of them). He and his wife quietly made themselves available, answering my questions when they could and praying for me when they couldn’t. That summer I wore a path to their door and found it open, even if I hadn’t called to ask if it was okay if I came by. After each visit, I somehow always found us praying together.

It was one summer evening as I sat on my old Schwinn ten-speed bike outside their home saying goodbye that Pastor King remarked, “We think God may be calling you to be a pastor someday.” At age fourteen, being a pastor was the farthest thing from my mind. It would take me more than six years to catch up to what the Kings came to realize in the quiet moments we spent together in prayer. God, in His kindness and humor, had given “The Wizard of Ahs” a special place in my life. It wasn’t courage or a brain or a heart that I found. It was a calling.
___________________________________________

This excerpt was taken from The Lost Art of Praying Together: Rekindling Passion for Prayer
©2009 by James Banks
978-1-57293-351-4
Pages 61-62

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