{"id":977,"date":"2015-10-22T13:30:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T13:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=977"},"modified":"2015-10-23T10:38:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T10:38:07","slug":"prayer-of-relinquishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=977","title":{"rendered":"Prayer of Relinquishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"08-02-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 AhChoo, AhChoo!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 God Bless you!\u00a0 Are you sick Prodigal?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 Yes, I am sick.\u00a0 I do not feel well at all!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 I am sorry!\u00a0 Just lay down and I will tell you of a story of a woman when she had a long term illness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Catherine Marshall in her book Beyond Our Selves talks about the Prayer of Relinquishment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I got my first glimpse of it in the fall of 1943.\u00a0 The illness that I have mentioned before in these pages had kept me in bed for many months.\u00a0 A bevy of specialists seemed unable to help.\u00a0 Persistent prayer, using all the faith I could muster, had resulted in –nothing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One afternoon a pamphlet was put in my hand.\u00a0 It was the story of a missionary who had been an invalid for eight years.\u00a0 Constantly she had prayed that God would make her well, so that she might do His work.\u00a0 Finally, worn out with futile petition, she prayed, “All right.\u00a0 I give up.\u00a0 If you want me to be an invalid for the rest of my days, that is Your business.\u00a0 Anyway, I have discovered that I want You even more than I want health.\u00a0 You decide”\u00a0 The pamphlet said that within two weeks the woman was out of bed, completely well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This made no sense to me.\u00a0 It seemed too pat.\u00a0 Yet I could not forget the story.\u00a0 On the morning of September fourteenth (how can I ever forget the date?)\u00a0 I came to the same point of abject acceptance.\u00a0 “I’m tired of asking” was the burden of my prayer.\u00a0 “I’m beaten, finished.\u00a0 God, You decide what you want for me for the rest of my life…”\u00a0 Tears flowed.\u00a0 I had no faith as I understood faith.\u00a0 I expected nothing.\u00a0 The gift of my sick self was made with no terrace of graciousness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The result was as if windows had opened in heaven; as if some dynamo of heavenly power had begun flowing, flowing into me.\u00a0 From that moment my recovery began.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You have been struggling so much.\u00a0 Trying to hide the struggling from others.\u00a0 You cry out to God.\u00a0 You don’t understand.\u00a0 You have tried this and that and God seems to be silent.\u00a0 You feeling like breaking.\u00a0 You are breaking.<\/p>\n

Maybe that is the point.\u00a0 Maybe it is time to just relinquish it all.\u00a0 I know it is very scary.\u00a0 You have been asking why?\u00a0 Maybe it is time that you relinquish it all to God.\u00a0 I know how hard it is.\u00a0 I had too.\u00a0 I don’t regret it at all.\u00a0 I was given a peace beyond understanding and then God really started using me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Isaiah 55:8-11<\/p>\n

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.\u00a0 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.\u00a0 “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but I shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen,<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Prodigal:\u00a0 AhChoo, AhChoo!   Me:\u00a0 God Bless you!\u00a0 Are you sick Prodigal?   Prodigal:\u00a0 Yes, I am sick.\u00a0 I do not feel well at all!   Prodigal:\u00a0 I am sorry!\u00a0 Just lay down and I will tell you of a story of a woman when she had a long term illness.   Catherine Marshall … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPrayer of Relinquishment - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=977\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayer of Relinquishment - 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