ENCOURAGED IN HEART

Remember yesterday when I wrote about being courageous enough to share your heart? Well today I’m sharing part 2.

Seventeen years.

Yup, seventeen years I’ve been friends with my “Jewish friend” (I feel kind of narrow labeling her like this, but for the purpose of this post I will). Seventeen years she’s heard me talk about Jesus. She’s watched me back slide, stood by me as I inhaled a better part of a pack of cigarettes in one day, rise up again, come back to my college dorm room drunk, rise back up again, get married, lose babies, lose my mind, have babies, lose the remainder of my mind, and everything else in between. She also knows who I depend on as my Anchor through the sharing of my very real life.

Jesus.

Seventeen years passed until we prayed for the very first time together. Oh, she knew that I prayed for her, in my comfort zone, ’cause I told her so. But never had I prayed together, with her, out of my comfort zone.

Let me assure you, my prayer with her, was not an orchestrated event, it happened while we were embraced in a tearful hug. I didn’t even think first, the prayer just came out of me. Sad to say, if I thought first…the prayer probably wouldn’t have happened. She didn’t withdraw her hug or say, “Stop you’re freaking me out!”. And believe me, she’s the kinda friend that would say it cause after all, we’ve dyed our hair together, road tripped together, after take 17 years, we take some liberties.

It breaks my heart to type this, but God answered our prayer…but in the opposite way that we prayed. Suffice to say that we’ve shed quite a few more tears since that prayer.

I know if I were reading this post, I’d want to know a couple of things. Was that prayer life changing for her? Does she want to sign up for the “Jesus program” now? Not that I’m aware of. But that doesn’t discourage me. Oh, it has before, until I started reading, or shall I say believing, Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

And ya know what else? I’m not friends with her because I want to change her. No, I love her as she is, she’s incredible (and also happens to have the most fabulous shoe collection I’ve known any woman to have)! Know what else?? I’m not persuading anyone to live like me, or love Jesus. No, I’ve taken myself off that hook. My job is to live it the best I know how. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to persuade. My only job is to be prepared to give an answer why I chose to live the way I do. And should she care to ask, I am ready to answer.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” I Peter 3:15

(Photo and latke recipe from here.)

While she says “latke”, I say “potato pancake”…and “YUMMY!”.

First, have you ever eaten a latke…how about matzoh ball soup?

Second, have you felt discouraged about what impact you’re having in a relationship for Christ? Leave a comment, and I promise to pray for you and ask fellow EIH’ers to join in prayer too!