Susie Larson found hope as she and her husband prayed through a crushing load of family crises, piling up in just six months.
She offers some valuable lessons in persevering prayer as she tells her story in her book Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God with a Bold and Humble Faith.
During that six-month period, her son's marriage broke up, a niece had a life-threatening tubing accident, doctors discovered 30 cancerous tumours in her brother's bladder, another brother's son was admitted to hospital with ulcerative colitis, and finally her brother-in-law was rushed to hospital with inoperable cancer in his stomach.
All this happened just after Larson and her husband jointly launched a special prayer effort, calling on God to act powerfully in six areas of their lives - their children, their extended family, their community, the persecuted, their ministry and their finances.
Many people would be so shaken by the series of family problems that prayer would take a back seat. But not Susie Larson and her husband.
"Though I went to work every day to do my live talk show, I always felt on the verge of tears, as my heart grieved over so many things," Larson says. "And yet, as Kev and I worked our way through our prayer list every day and every night, we felt more grounded in Christ than ever."
There came a time when Larson was so broken-hearted during this period that she put herself "in a Jesus-eclipse".
"I took my weary self and drew ever closer to Jesus. I scooted up so close to him that my only heart's cry was for more of him in me. I knew I couldn't manage all that weighed so heavily on me, so I gave him every shred of it. I gave him the deep burdens that plagued our family."
She did the same with the problems of her ministry. In essence, "I stopped praying about everything and anything except him".
But there was one more stage in this prayer journey.
She interviewed singer-songwriter Wintley Phipps who told her of chance encounters he had which turned out to be designed by God to impact lives for Jesus.
"Nothing happens by chance," Phipps told Larson, "and if we make ourselves available to the Lord, he'll open doors and connect us with people we would never otherwise meet. He wants to open doors and provide opportunities to use us for his grand purpose."
God wants us to be transformed into the image of Christ, Phipps said. And he uses these opportunities to help us on the way.
So Larson realized that "it was time for me to get back in the game". She needed to go beyond seeking Jesus' protection to walking the path he had chosen for her.
The author says she believes God is good and that we will find out in eternity all the answers to the questions that puzzle us now.
But already she has seen what God is doing in her family.
Her son Jordan is becoming the man of God she and her husband prayed he would be and "quite a number of our nieces and nephews have engaged their faith on a deeper level".
One nephew sent her a text message: "Hey, Auntie Susie, this is your favourite nephew. I just wanted to tell you that I've decided to trust God with my life. I got down on my knees at work and surrendered my life to Christ. I just wanted you to know."
"As a family, we are clinging to God's promises on a whole new level," Larson writes. "And guess what? We're. Still. Standing."
The lesson I take from this for myself and for anyone overcome with sadness or worry? Hang in there!
God will work some good out of the hardest circumstances.
She offers some valuable lessons in persevering prayer as she tells her story in her book Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God with a Bold and Humble Faith.
During that six-month period, her son's marriage broke up, a niece had a life-threatening tubing accident, doctors discovered 30 cancerous tumours in her brother's bladder, another brother's son was admitted to hospital with ulcerative colitis, and finally her brother-in-law was rushed to hospital with inoperable cancer in his stomach.
All this happened just after Larson and her husband jointly launched a special prayer effort, calling on God to act powerfully in six areas of their lives - their children, their extended family, their community, the persecuted, their ministry and their finances.
Many people would be so shaken by the series of family problems that prayer would take a back seat. But not Susie Larson and her husband.
"Though I went to work every day to do my live talk show, I always felt on the verge of tears, as my heart grieved over so many things," Larson says. "And yet, as Kev and I worked our way through our prayer list every day and every night, we felt more grounded in Christ than ever."
There came a time when Larson was so broken-hearted during this period that she put herself "in a Jesus-eclipse".
"I took my weary self and drew ever closer to Jesus. I scooted up so close to him that my only heart's cry was for more of him in me. I knew I couldn't manage all that weighed so heavily on me, so I gave him every shred of it. I gave him the deep burdens that plagued our family."
She did the same with the problems of her ministry. In essence, "I stopped praying about everything and anything except him".
But there was one more stage in this prayer journey.
She interviewed singer-songwriter Wintley Phipps who told her of chance encounters he had which turned out to be designed by God to impact lives for Jesus.
"Nothing happens by chance," Phipps told Larson, "and if we make ourselves available to the Lord, he'll open doors and connect us with people we would never otherwise meet. He wants to open doors and provide opportunities to use us for his grand purpose."
God wants us to be transformed into the image of Christ, Phipps said. And he uses these opportunities to help us on the way.
So Larson realized that "it was time for me to get back in the game". She needed to go beyond seeking Jesus' protection to walking the path he had chosen for her.
The author says she believes God is good and that we will find out in eternity all the answers to the questions that puzzle us now.
But already she has seen what God is doing in her family.
Her son Jordan is becoming the man of God she and her husband prayed he would be and "quite a number of our nieces and nephews have engaged their faith on a deeper level".
One nephew sent her a text message: "Hey, Auntie Susie, this is your favourite nephew. I just wanted to tell you that I've decided to trust God with my life. I got down on my knees at work and surrendered my life to Christ. I just wanted you to know."
"As a family, we are clinging to God's promises on a whole new level," Larson writes. "And guess what? We're. Still. Standing."
The lesson I take from this for myself and for anyone overcome with sadness or worry? Hang in there!
God will work some good out of the hardest circumstances.
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