When God Moves Through Prayer - guest post by Yaasha Moriah

By Yaasha Moriah

I work at a pregnancy center that reaches out to women who face unexpected pregnancies, and one of the first lessons I learned there was the power of prayer.

The center started with prayer. In 2005, supporters in northern Vermont recognized the need for a branch in my home area, and began to pray for a new center. Five years later, in 2010, the new center came into being. When the center received a phone number, we recognized it as a reminder that the Lord had heard our prayers, for the number included the number 2005—the exact year that our prayers began.

Many people worked hard to let the community know about the new center, but, as we all know, it takes time for the word to get around. There were many days, then weeks, then months, when no clients came. But it wasn’t wasted time. Why? Because we prayed.

There were only two of us in the beginning, and we prayed every time we came to the center, before the day’s work began. We began with short prayers—five or ten minutes—but soon we found ourselves praying for hours. We prayed for spiritual fruit and a lively ministry, we prayed for each other and our families, we prayed for our community and our nation. It seemed that we never ran out of things to pray for, or for reasons to praise God.

And we saw change. First of all, God changed us, through our persistent prayer. This was important, because when He began to bring the clients, we had been refined and strengthened to be the support that our clients needed.

I remember that I began to pray specifically for two kinds of clients: the woman who was considering abortion, and the woman who wanted to live purely, but didn’t think it was possible. Months later, the first kind of client walked in the door. We spent two hours talking over her pregnancy options and, by the time she left, she knew the risks of abortion and her child’s stage of development. I praised God that I had been there for that moment of her need.

But the moment my new friend walked out the door, another young woman arrived. In the next hour, she and I discussed the reality that she was worth waiting for, and that the right man was also worth waiting for. By the time that crazy day was over, I was in awe of my amazing Father and the way He answers prayer!

Today, the life of the center is very different and active, especially since we now offer ultrasound services! Even though it is quite busy, we still pray. We pray for our clients, for their children, for their spouses or boyfriends, for the deep spiritual need of our community, for our own need for God’s grace and sufficiency in our lives, and for God to be glorified above all. We also have much to be thankful for, which we pour out in praise to Him. We’ve seen prayers answered in BIG and marvelous ways!

Sometimes the specific requests we have go unanswered for a long time. That doesn’t stop us from praying again. We have learned over and over that God truly cares for our needs and desires, and He answers when the timing is right.

Sometimes we think of prayer as Plan B. “Well, if that doesn’t work, I’ll try prayer,” or, “Well, if we can’t think of anything else to do, we should pray.” But prayer should be our priority. God moves through prayer, and responds to His people.

I am so thankful that we did not stop praying because of discouragement or the seeming delay in God’s response. We would have missed so much if we had given up! We did not grow weary in well doing, and God answered—and is still answering—in amazing and mighty ways!

A Little about Yaasha
Yaasha Moriah considers herself an apprentice to the Master Writer, whose amazing story, woven through all of history, inspires the stories that she writes today. She is the author of READY FOR HIM TODAY, a book for single Christian women about faith, purity, relationships, and readiness; and of two speculative fiction titles (REFLECTIONS and IMMERSION). When she is not chained to her laptop, she is loving her life as a sister to her five best friends, a daughter to her two wise parents, and an aunt to an adorable little girl. She intends to continue writing until her own story has reached its last page.