Prayer In Pain

Encouraging prayer, God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything, and encouraging prayer Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling and many other books on prayer provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love and now welcome to encouraging prayer Pastor James Banks with construction today. James would give them up easiest thing to talk about but really praying while you're in pain.

Yeah, I'm so glad were talking about this today because this is such a practical topic Robbie so many people who care on a daily basis and you just look at all of the ads we see on TV for prescription meds for for pain relievers, and this is such a part of human life. How do we handle it with our prayers. Let's talk about that seems like while God's kinda had you there with the situation with your own back recently, right yeah yeah I have had a situation for the past month where my nerves thought just been going out of control, and you know my sciatic nerve. If you know that a painful one.

Not sleeping at night losing strength not able to do the things that I did treatment, sometimes working but not making it go away and I would have laid awake at night sometimes I thought Lord what what do you want me to learn in all of that's what what is it that that it is on the left.

From here, hard question to ask how it is certainly know me well and through a few things and and often the lessons quite different, and sometimes a lesson for us right before we went on the air you were talking about how you had a time of excruciating pain and how the Lord met you in that when you were praying and I'd love for you to share that with our listeners. Yeah when I had them when I had lymphoma in 1996 and then after that I had this flareup in the meninges part of my brain and so they did some you never want to have if you get away with it.

Don't get a brain biopsy but anyway I had wanted me. They take a little partiers go out to me and they put a titanium plate and there will that bring out a staff infection which quickly led to a brain abscess and with the plate still in my head. They needed to rush me in the emergency surgery. The painful part of it was that my skull was actually you know swelling inside my my brain was swelling inside my skull with no way to get rid of the pressure and so they were trying to rush me into this emergency surgery and something happened where they couldn't get into the room for about 20 or 3030 minutes a push map hauling in there like somehow or another. You just cannot have to hang on and they'd given me all these pain medications but they had done nothing and I just I was in this phenomenal point of turmoil. I got can't even I don't want to think back to you but what I remember was crying out just simple like I can tell you the words I use. But it was like hell. It was like oh my gosh I can't take this is an softly I felt a hand grabs my hand and I looked up, she didn't say a word.

It was it was a nurse that happened to be in my Sunday school class and I knew somewhat well, but had no idea that she worked here. There she somehow or another, since what was going on. She did not say a word which would've been unbelievably painful.

She just held my hand and immediately I knew I knew at this point that we seem like more than I can ever take really and almost hoping to die that this was Jesus and he had my hand and he was in this particular case saying I'm here with you and and and migration since it's going to be okay and that just sense of him being there, and it being her and realizing that Jesus sent her. It was the point that I needed and it brings me to tears. To this day to even think how loved I felt in this is isn't even in the pain that I was what amazing story. I love this God's word tells us to call on him in our prayers.

You know I look at someone 16, which is because he bends down to listen and pray as long as I have breath and think about Peterson cast your cares on him because he cares for you and this applies to physical pain but emotional pain as well.

You know you could be going through loss, grief for more heartache in a relationship and it matters so much that we can call on the Lord as we call on him.

It's so important for us to point out that like you were saying he may answer in any number of ways were not saying that call on him and that'll just instantly make the pain go away you know often it doesn't. Sometimes it does but I think our model here is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, where he was in great anguish so much that he sweat great drops of blood and and yet look at the way he prayed, their father. If you are willing have this cup pass from me, but not of course referring to the crucifixion, but but not as I will but but as you will you know what you will and you know that there's something in that as well, saying father. I will accept this if I have to.

If it is what you want for me that the challenging thing though is and amazing because we so desperately need him.

I mean I hate you know but sometimes you think maybe there's something in our pain that's needed to happen in order to help others the way the Jesus pain helped all of us will and so you know, think about how he went through the worst kind of pain imaginable, but the main point here is that we have a father that we can truly call on our pain and we we have to do this. Sometimes we get frustrated we make it angry, but he meets and if he doesn't remove the pain, and as we lean into him. He gives us a way to get through it and shows us that he is greater than anything that we face while it seems like a perfect place for me to close this time but I know that there's lots out there that are relating and some of them are hurting right at this very moment. So Jesus, thank you. We know you're there and in some way.

I pray that you would grab hold of somebody's hand and help them to feel that that that you're with them through this. You may take it or whether it's for someone else. Lord, we pray that it would not be wasted, that it would be used for your purposes and that many would work to overcome and we ask this in Jesus hear more from Pastor James by visiting the website. James bank.org or by visiting these church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you.

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