The Power of Prayer and Fasting - Testimony

As someone who blogs not for the sake of blogging, but hoping that someone's heart will be touched and led closer to Jesus, I often ask myself if I am really making a difference, if it is worth taking my time to write.

Well, a couple of days ago God showed me that I am not writing in vain and that He can use an imperfect person like me and imperfect blog posts like mine to touch hearts.

A little over a month ago I received an email from a stranger. I will name her Laura to protect her identity. She read my blog posts for the 100 Days of Prayer and came across my personal blog (I have no clue how she did that!!!). Here are two excerpts of her email:

I have never told anyone about this, even now I don't know why am writing this, but one thing I do know: I need someone to pray for me and advise me on how to fast and pray.

Please pray for me. Our marriage has serious problems, which is leaving me emotionally broken. And because of that, I am struggling spiritually and I feel am going deeper and deeper in things which are not good. I can't pray, I can't read the Bible no matter how much I want to (I know its sound crazy!). I don't know who I am anymore and my life is falling apart.

I wrote back and promised her that I will be praying for her. I have told her how I usually fast, I have sent her a power point presentation and some stories about the power of prayer and fasting. I have sent her Martin Kim's sermon on fasting and I have also told her about my experiences with fasting and praying.

I wrote her name on my prayer list and prayed for her every day. I was wondering how are things going with her and I wished she wrote back to let me know what is going on. But I did not want to write to her and ask. I did not put my hopes up that she will ever get back to me since I knew that a lot of times people ask for prayer but forget to give a feed-back.

I was really surprised when a couple ago I saw another email from Laura. I opened it not knowing what to expect. Was she asking for more prayer? Did she have more issues she wanted me to pray for? I knew that Satan attacks even harder when people want to come closer to God. I read her email and I could not believe what I was reading. My heart was filled with joy. Her email showed me that we serve an all-powerful God and for Him there is nothing too difficult. He can change hearts and He can make someone a new person. If only we asked Him!

Here is her email. I asked her permission to share the story and her email so that others can be encouraged to draw closer to God through prayer and fasting.

Dear Raluca,

Hope this email finds you well. Thank you so much for your email. The power points were great! Thank you for encouraging me and praying for me.

No words can explain how much you mean to me. We haven't met but it's like I have known you for a long time because of reading your blogs! You saved my life. God used you to bring me back again into the right place. God used your messages to guide me and answer my prayers. I thank God for using people like you. Thank you for the wonderful messages you and husband are writing for the 100 Days of Prayers. They are so inspirational.

For 6 years my husband and I have been struggling with many issues in our marriage. We tried getting counseling from our Pastor. It didn't work. We went for marital counseling. It didn't work. Marriage seminars didn't work. Nothing was working.

From outside our marriage looked perfect. People could tell us how wonderful we are. But inside us we both knew that we were not connected. Our love had faded away, and this problem affected me seriously. Knowing that I was not loved by my husband made me feel empty, sad, very confused and very lost, to the point were I could not pray.

The more I was not praying, the more horrible I felt! I was becoming depressed! I was going down deep towards hell everyday!

In my 21 days of prayer my greatest request was "Lord change my life, I want to fall in love with Jesus again." I knew very well if I don't have the love of Jesus in my heart, the love of my husband that I was looking for could never fill my heart.

My husband is more spiritual than me. He has been my spiritual mentor since we met! Many things I know about God are from him. When I told him about praying and fasting for 21 days he was very skeptical about it. He gave me all the reason why I should not do it and he was 100 percent sure about it. But I was not convinced. I knew for sure I needed to do it right away even if it meant to do it alone.

It was a Sunday early in the morning that I told my husband to pray for me because I am starting 21 days of prayer and fasting. Guess what??? Without any hesitation he told me "I am doing it with you!" That was my first miracle!!! Before we got married we used to pray together but after our wedding everything faded away. One would hardly see us praying together! Now my husband and I we were going to do prayer and fasting for 21 days!!!! It was like a dream to me!!!

The bible says in Psalm 38: 4 "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him."

Dear Raluca, God is so good and so merciful, his love endures forever. I can testify it. God healed my marriage and brought peace and happiness in our marriage. My husband is crazy in love with me more than you can imagine.

But the greatest miracle He did is the work He did in me spiritual life. God revealed to me many sins I needed to confess, many bad habits I needed to change. On my 14th day God gave me a second chance and strength to confess and repent a secret sin that I had been keeping to myself for 10 years. I was afraid to confess it. I thought I will loose everything I had, I will loose my husband. But that Friday God spoke to me that I needed to confess because I lied to my husband.

I prayed to God, I said "God I have decided to follow you anyway, no matter the cost, and if it means to loose everything, I will do it." Guess what? I confessed to my husband and he didn't even hesitate for a minute. He just told me "You are forgiven!" I thought maybe he wants to take time to think about it, but no, he meant what he said. It was like telling me there is nothing you can do to make me love you less. From that day peace like a river flooded my soul. I was free in Jesus. He forgave me all my sins and cleansed me white as snow.

He has been speaking to me through his word and many sermons from his people. Pr. Martin Kim, Pr. Ron Clouzet, Pr. Ivor Myers... Wow... I fell in love with the Word of God, and I love being in his presence.

If I wrote everything that happen I will not finish soon. Just know am not the same woman who wrote to you the first message!!! Jesus came to my heart and this time He came to stay. I have decided to follow Him and do His will even when no one goes with me. It is true if we seek Him and His righteousness He will take care of the other things in our lives (Matthew 6:33). Pray for me, and I will be praying for you too.

During our prayer time my husband felt God calling us to start prayer meetings in the campus where we work. Pray for us that God will open ways for us to do it.

Much love,

Laura

Friends, I hope that this testimony will encourage you to draw closer to Him in prayer and fasting. We have an awesome God for whom nothing is impossible. Let's go to Him with our problems and let's trust in His power. Let's trust that His strength can be made perfect in our weakness. He can do miracles for us, if only we surrendered to Him. If only if we trusted Him! If only we asked Him to come and live in our hearts!