Joan Hershberger

Brief prayer

Posted by Joan Hershberger on April 19, 2011 at 6:23

While I struggle to pray as much as I intend to pray for family, I was reminded recently, that God hears any and all of our prayers. I have prayed the briefest of prayers for the company sales staff. "Lord be with ..... " naming each "today as they go about their job." Sometimes I add more, but mostly it is just that.

And God hears and answers the prayers I have prayed because He impressed me to pray for them. Sometimes it feels like I should be much more wordy, elaborate and…

expand my borders, Lord

Posted by Joan Hershberger on August 30, 2010 at 12:47

I was reminded of the Prayer of Jabez last week and inspired to renew a prayer that God would "Expand my borders, please."
I work at a newspaper and like to write. As I prayed, I was thinking, Okay, God, I'm ready to write a book, do something outside of the newspaper world. That was Friday/Saturday praying.
Today, I was told that my weekly 6 page section that we do on kids at school (pictures, articles of topics of interest) has been expanded to 8 pages.
Wow! Eight pages, that…

It's a God thing

Posted by Joan Hershberger on May 15, 2010 at 22:34

So many times it just feels like "if you don't have enough faith, don't pray hard enough, don't get really into the prayer and faith and trust, then nothing will happen and it will be your fault.
However I was reading Mike Evans "The Unanswered Prayers of Christ" where he felt drained of energy and could not see how he could pray with enough faith for the healing of a child. But he closed his eyes and prayed, thinking nothing will happen, I don't feel it, I am too tired to do it.
And…

It's not me, it's God

Posted by Joan Hershberger on May 13, 2010 at 4:46

God is working even when I do not realize it.
My car just returned from the radiator repair shop. I said Ouch because it was $600 to repair a major leakage into the oil. The mechanic was amazed that the leak had not been allowed to continue until it cracked the head .... and cost much, much more.
He said I had good hearing. Sure I heard the putt-putt of the engine some days - but not every time - when I started it up. Another mechanic had done $50 worth of work on the radiator system…

Prayer prompts

Posted by Joan Hershberger on April 12, 2010 at 8:11

Several years ago when God began calling me to increase my prayers, I struggled to know how or what to pray. I have found the prayer prompts definitely help. I wanted to go beyond just "bless me and giveme"

Having come from a non-liturgical church background, we scorned the use of prayer books and written prayers. Not spontaneous. It ounded weird use prayer prompts,

But I found that I never had the same feelings about from conversation prompts I found in books or with the…

God commands us to pray

Posted by Joan Hershberger on April 12, 2010 at 7:55

God already knows our needs. He knows our hearts. He knows the outcome, but He still commands us to pray. Once or twice I have been awakened with a really strong impression, "Pray for this person.' So strong a message that I pray. I do not know 'why' I prayed sometimes, but the impression was so strong that I did.

Others have the same experience as in the following testimony my daughter shared with me.

The single woman who had her own business assessing properties felt the…

Not Daniel but Jonah

Posted by Joan Hershberger on April 10, 2010 at 20:02

I am impressed with Daniel's praying three times a day, faithfully, regularly, even if it meant punishment. I want to be like that, but mostly the last few months I act more like Jonah. God wants me to pray, to set aside time to pray instead of filling up with food, activities or entertainment, and I find a lot of ways to head for Ninevah.
This morning I decided my life's prayer title should be "Just when I thought I would dare to be a Daniel, but I jumped a ship like Jonah." Instead of…