I recently saw a video of a pastor, preaching about how in the Bible, God never failed to answer a woman’s prayer. Unfortunately it was only a two minute clip, and it didn’t name the pastor so I could check out the whole sermon. It got me thinking about my prayer life, though the ups and downs and the journey it’s been. I grew up Catholic, I went to the church my mom and her family grew up going to. I went to CCD every Tuesday night until I was in high school, and I received all 12 sacraments. However, I never truthfully knew who God was, I just feared Him and I never had a genuine relationship with Jesus. The only prayers I knew then were the ones I was told to say after confession and the one we said at bedtime. I did not fully understand what prayer was, truthfully, until February of 2022.
I went to a church in Spring Lake, N.C. (where my family and I lived at the time) called Reclamation. I watched a woman go up to the alter because she was sick and needed prayers. When Pastor Rob asked if the church would come and pray over this woman with him, very few were left in their seats. I, however in that moment, had never seen hands laid on someone while prayers were spoken over them, so I watched in awe. I cried, because I knew this community of Christians is exactly where I wanted and needed to be, to grow in my faith and raise my family in. That church and those people became home and family. It’s where I rededicated my life to Jesus, and where my husband got saved. It will forever hold a special place in our lives.