January 21, 2023
We are all prodigals, on our own path of the journey to know God. We have all strayed and walked away from God at one time or another, thinking we know best but all we do is get ourselves into things that are hard to get out of without the help of the Holy Spirit. This is a story about one of those prodigals….
Years ago, in a Bible Study Fellowship group, one of the ladies became a dear friend. During the time I was in the same group as her, at least two years, she had asked for prayer for her daughter who had been lost for awhile. One night I remember meeting her daughter who happened to check out BSF one night. Later, I also had her mom as my BSF group discussion leader and we continued to pray for each other’s children. One time while I was visiting her and her daughter had come into the house with her boyfriend and the kiddos, we met again briefly.
In 2017, I started praying with Moms in Prayer. I had started a couple groups but the ones near and dear to my heart were the Prodigal Prayer Groups. I had people come into my home to pray for each other’s children and it was such a meaningful time. There were many tears. I even had one person leave the group because she said things were getting worse for her child. I encouraged her not to leave because it is a spiritual battle as we stand in the gap for our loved ones. She couldn’t handle things getting worse. I understood all too well how the enemy gets threatened and then blindsides your prodigal.
At one time, we had a group of moms praying for 30 prodigals. We each picked verses for our children and then I compiled the list of first names with the verses that everyone got a copy of. We decided we would fast and pray for a 24 hour period for each and every prodigal. Every Sunday night, I would share a devotional or something encouraging to keep us keeping on to be on our knees in the biggest spiritual battle any of us have ever experienced. It was a privilege to pray for all the children that were living in rebellion. We prayed, not only the verses each mom picked for their blessings, but we prayed as we felt led, some ugly prayers you’d never think you’d need to pray as a parent. We knew we needed to pray “whatever it takes, Lord, for them to return to You”: sleepless nights, fractured relationships, sickness with addictions, getting caught, getting arrested, conviction, etc.We also prayed for God to put godly people on the paths of their journeys that would point them to Christ and also for God to remove the ones drawing them away from Him.
I remember meeting one of these prodigals in 2019 when I went to a Celebrate Recovery group. We happened to be in the same group and after our time there, she came to me and commented on something I had said (I wish I could remember though I might have it in a journal somewhere) and then asked some questions. I gave her my number and we hugged. I kept thinking she looked so familiar and was wondering why. Later, she texted me to let me know her number as well. I remember texting I would be praying for her.
Then it hit me! She was my friend’s daughter whom I had met on a couple different occasions throughout the past few years but she obviously hadn’t remembered me because it was literally a couple minute meeting both times. I asked my husband what I was to do. Do I tell my friend that I have am attending CR with her daughter? Do I tell her daughter that I’ve known her mom for years and that I have prayed for her? I felt like God wasn’t leading me to either one of those directions so I chose to stay silent unless it came up. The thing is I was no longer in her mom’s same Bible Study Fellowship group so feel God timed all this perfectly.
So, over the next year and a half I got to know Catherine more and more. We spent time together not only in Celebrate Recovery but outside of Celebrate Recovery. She has the most precious heart who has been seeking God more and more. She is a good example of how we are to come to the Lord, having a child-like faith. It was a privilege to continue to pray for her. When we prayed for God to put people who loved the Lord into our prodigal’s lives, it blows me away how God then desired for us to meet. I pray this for my prodigals, too, for them to have godly examples in their lives to draw them closer to the Lord. I grieved with her mom years before I met her. At the time, our prodigals don’t really know how far they have gone from God or us. I would reccomend all moms to get involved with Moms in Prayer. Don’t grieve alone. Let’s stand in the gap together as we fight this spiritual battle for our blessings.
It was about a year and a half later that I knew it was time for me to share with her mom and her that I had known Catherine for the past year and half. The reason is because we all ended up at the same 4th of July picnic. I asked my husband to pray because “it was time” for me to share. For whatever reason, I thought one or both would not be happy with me that I kept knowing each of them from the other. I talked to her mom first and told her. She was happily surprised and then I went over to Catherine to tell her. She had just gone in line to get food and then I told her I needed to talk to her. I said she probably better sit down which I think made her nervous, and again, why was I nervous when this was all part of God’s perfect plan?!
I told her I’d know her mom for the past few years from Bible Study Fellowship and that I had been praying for her all this time along with my prodigals. I told her we prayed verses over each prodigal and fasted for a 24 hour period each week. She just listened and there said something I’ll never forget. She said, “You prayed for me without even knowing me?” I told her it was and is a privilege to pray for her. I shared ugly prayers we prayed, and she asked, “You prayed that I wouldn’t sleep?!” I said, “yes, I did”, because we had to pray however God led us and sometimes those prayers are bold and ugly.” She said, “There were many times I couldn’t sleep!” I said. “well, if that helped to draw you back to the Lord, it was worth it”. She laughed and then asked if I still pray that for her, and I said as long as she’s walking with the Lord, God will not lead me to pray that. One time we had gone to see a magic show together and he actually talked about praying “ugly prayers” for prodigals. She nudged me and we both laughed.
Catherine and I try to pray together and do discipleship using Freedom in Christ workbooks twice a week. I love her enthusiasm and passion for knowing the Lord more and more and the desire to see her children seek the Lord, too. I love that we can talk and talk about what God is teaching us. It is so amazing to pray together and to hold each other accountable in this journey of growing closer and closer to the Lord. “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. Proverbs 27:17
If you like this blog with Catherine’s testimony, please like and/or comment, share, and subscribe.
Blessings,
Jennifer
Scriptures from Catherine’s testimony:
I Samuel 7:12-13 – “Then Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “So far the Lord has helped us.” 13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.”
John 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends”.
Acts 17:28 – “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’
John 14:1-3 – “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.”
Isaiah 64:8 “But now, Lord, You are our Father;We are the clay, and You our potter, And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
Hebrews 6:18 – “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us.”
Mark 16:17-18 “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Colossians 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him (WHEN HE WENT TO THE CROSS – Catherine’s words in parenthesis)
James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away”.
Philippians 3:8-10 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
proverbs31misfit 
I love this story. It is so incredible how God allowed you to see both sides of the story! That is encouraging to me to see that there ARE two sides to the story, and God works in both!!!
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