Prodigal Prayer Day 2023, episode 108

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. And also help and hope for your own life journey. We just finished our 26th Prodigal Prayer Day worldwide, and it was worldwide. The centerpiece of every June 2nd Prodigal Prayer Day is prayer for people as requested by someone who loves them. All we know about each name is their name. We know nothing about their story, nothing about their family.

0:43 We just know their name. But our God, to whom we are bringing these names, knows every one of them. Every first name, he knows their last name. He knows how he created them and what he created them for, and he knows the journey that they're on. I started the day with the Lord on June 2nd, praying through all the names in the J section and the M section of our list of names to be prayed for. Those are two of the largest groups of names. It is so sweet, so meaningful, so thankful, and hopeful to lift these loved ones up to our God.

1:30 Early in the afternoon, I joined with some of our Prayer for Prodigals team and at least a hundred others for a Zoom call to pray together. Those praying were from all over the U.S. and at least four other nations that we know of. First, we divided into small groups in which each group shared a little of their story, and then they prayed for each other. But then we came back together and prayed along as different ones read the list of names in each alphabet letter. Together, we lifted up every person on the list, and there are more than 8,000, and at least 500 we know of are new, just added.

2:16 That evening, a small group of us met and prayed through the remaining names on the list. I and many others will continue to pray for these names throughout the year. Several times in the coming months, Dina Yohe of Hope for Hurting Parents will host Zoom calls, and we will once again bring names of the people on the list, loved ones, to our God. Is this effective? Does it really work? Oh, yes. Coming together to pray helps us feel not alone in this journey, first of all, and Scripture assures us that He is there when His children come together to pray.

3:01 It also encourages each one to hear the stories of others, and especially to hear stories of answered prayer and changed lives. Someone said, Our compassionate Lord hears our collective cry in faith and love through prayer. Of course, we don't know what God is doing in response, but we have His promise that He is always working, and He loves to answer prayers and to rescue the wandering lost sheep. So, the main thing I want to do is share with you just a few stories of answered prayer.

3:43 Now, a lot of these we'll never know what God's done, and some we won't know for quite a while, and some God won't tell the rest of us, and the people won't, but they know. They will find out. But we already have heard some stories. We heard from a mom this morning who is in an online support group. She was shocked when her son showed up unexpectedly on her doorstep, having been released from jail, unknown to her. She received a video of him singing Amazing Grace to her. He told her he is supposed to go into a rehab program soon.

4:25 She is praising God for this answer to prayer. She wrote, Thank you so much for calling out His name before the Father. All our prodigals are continually before Him. Another mom mentioned today that she got an I love you note from her prodigal this morning. She's praising God for that. From another parent says, Please pray for my son. He ran away, and I don't know where he is, praying for safety in his salvation through his suffering. His mind is not stable, praying that we won't see him wasting the suffering and that God will use it for His higher purposes.

5:13 And then this morning we get this message. He texted her and said, Mom, can you call all your girlfriends and set up a prayer time together? Basically saying, Mom, would you pray for me? This is the first time he has asked for her to pray for him. From a mom on our team whose son is on the list. Yesterday evening, my son asked me to put his friend's name on the list. Asking, was it still OK to add someone? We said yes. So she says, I put him on the list. What he needs really is physical healing, but I imagine he also needs some spiritual healing.

6:00 And my son, who's kind of up and down in his journey, was thrilled to see that his own name was on the list. Here's a story that wasn't from our prayer time, but was received on June 2nd. And this woman writes, Today is June 2nd. It's the 37th anniversary of my prodigal return home. I was raised in a wonderful Christian family, but in my early 20s, I chose a path of death and destruction. I spent 10 years caught up in a world of drug and alcohol abuse, multiple abortions, promiscuity and insanity.

6:43 All the while, I was diverting drugs from my workplace as I was an RN in a trauma center. In June of 1986, God pulled me out of the pit of my wicked choices and destruction. I returned home to the Lord, and in his merciful grace, he saved me and changed me. Today, I have been married for 30 years to a wonderful Christian man. We have a beautiful 28-year-old Christian daughter who loves the Lord with all her heart. God has been so faithful and good to me, and I'm so thankful for the loving forgiveness and merciful grace. Thank you so much for your ministry.

7:26 And then I just want to give you this story also from the past. It's about our son Josh, who's really the founder of Prodigal Prayer Day since it was for him to begin with. And we were asking people to pray for him. A few days after June 2nd, Josh came running into our house with terror in his eyes. He was not in a good place then, and the gang he was a part of had gotten into an agreement with another gang who had decided Josh was the problem. He thought his life was in danger and he needed to get out of town. It so happened that our ministry was having six weeks of conferences in Colorado, and they were looking for more teens who could be workers at the conference.

8:15 In two days, Josh was on his way to Colorado to a job working among a lot of loving believers. Not a coincidence. Answer to prayer. Our theme this year has been Joy in the Hard Journey, based on James 1-2. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Repeatedly in Scripture, in the New Testament and the Old Testament, we are encouraged to rejoice always. How is that possible? Most often the evidence of answered prayer takes time or comes in small increments.

9:01 We give thanks for those steps in the right direction, and we find it easy to rejoice when there are quick answers, even miraculous ones sometimes. Our responsibility is to keep going to God. Let God's Word encourage your mind and your heart. Know that the Prayer for Prodigals website is always available. If you are a member, you can come and post requests and look at the resources that are available and pray with others. But you don't have to be a member to post requests. We'll take your requests and pray for them. And we can keep praying for the list of names that we have, which will continue to grow over the next year.

9:47 Very loved prodigals, someone cared enough to put their name in. The link for the Prayer Center is in the show notes. May God fill you, overflow, within you and over you and through you with great joy. God bless you.