BLOG: Retreat to advance

By Hannah W

Recently I found myself sitting on the floor in my living room crying out to God. I was grieving the loss of a faithful man who had devoted his life to God, but had sadly passed away because of COVID-19. The weight of this loss lay heavily on my heart. And I realised, in the difficulty of lockdown, I had been distant from God and had started to doubt His goodness. But as I cried and prayed, I felt God comfort me, wrapping me up in a hug like a loving father.

‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’ Romans 8:26-27 (ESV)

Retreat to our Father

2020 has been a challenging year for us all. But, as I found when I was crying out to God, the answer is not to retreat from God, which can often be our default position, but to retreat into Him. As Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ Matthew 11:28 (NIV). There is true rest and great peace to be found when we retreat into the loving embrace of our Father, laying down our cares at His feet.

During this year of uncertainty, our teams in the Arab world have been devoting themselves to prayer. For them, and for those who support them, prayer isn’t a cog in the wheel, it’s the fuel that powers the machine. The difficulties of this year should spur us on in prayer. As we retreat into God we can advance in our mission.

Your heart for prayer can grow

It can often be difficult to know how we can pray for mission. But I’ve found that we can simply start to talk to our loving Father, and He will give us the words to say and grow our heart for what we are praying for.

Look out for a few articles on our website in the coming weeks to spur you on in praying for mission. You can also sign up for our quarterly prayer diary and fortnightly email update to develop a rhythm of praying for God’s mission in the world and growing in the power of prayer.

For more information on how to pray for the Arab World, why not sign up to receive our regular prayer updates?

Image credit: Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash

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