Team

Sometimes you just need to be part of a team instead of trying to do it on your own.

I needed a team this week. I needed a team to rally around me and support me with prayers and blessings and encouragement. And they did.

I had to do something that was scary. It shouldn’t have been scary. But they say that more people fear public speaking than dying. Seems I might be one of them. The crazy thing is, God keeps giving me opportunities to do the very thing that makes my heart pound and my knees shake. I know that if God puts the opportunity there, which He so obviously did this week, the only response is – yes.

I didn’t want to do it alone. But I also didn’t want to admit this “thorn-in-my –flesh”, this weakness of mine. It’s much easier to pretend self-sufficiency and strength and confidence. And much more difficult to open yourself up. But your team needs to know about your weaknesses so they can help.

So I told them. And my team of family and friends rallied around me and held me up in prayers and blessings and encouragement. And God heard their prayers and He came through and all the anxiety left me the minute I opened my mouth to speak. Imagine that.

God doesn’t want us to face our weaknesses alone. I hadn’t realized just how many scriptures speak of asking others to pray for us until I started studying it this week. God wants us to have a team of prayer warriors around us, people who know our hearts and our weaknesses. People who want to see our lives glorify God through and in spite of those weaknesses.

I hope you have a team. I had a great team this week. I couldn’t have done it without them.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Daniel 2:17-18

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. Esther 4:15-17

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:19

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. Romans 15:13