Enlarge My Borders“Ask and I will surely give you the heathen for your inheritance” Psalms 2:8

I had an amazing re I had an amazing revelation and answer to prayer this week. Two people just outside the outskirts of my family died recently. One of the deaths was a cousin’s wife’s father, the other a cousin’s ex-wife’s sister. I have been pondering this. Then I went to Debbie Carter’s for a visit. She had a puzzle she was working on laid out on the table. The border was finished and she was working on sections inside of it. Outside of the border were a few odd pieces that she didn’t quite know where to put them yet. I was talking to her about these deaths when I saw it. The border had a thin red line all the way around. A blood line. I thought about how I pline. I thought about how I pray for my family. I pray according to Acts 16:31 “Believe and you and your whole household will be saved.” So when I pray for my family, I don’t just stop at those under my roof. I think of Rahab and her “whole household.” Joshua 6:23 “So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had. They also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.” How big is my household? Not only those in my immedi-ate household, children, spouse; but also aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, mother, father, grandparents, nieces, nephews, cousin’s children, those related by blood, adoption or in-laws!

The puzzle reminded me I have prayed the Prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10, “Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed! And enlarge my borders, that Your hand would be with me; that You keep me from evil, that I might not cause pain.” “Enlarge my borders.” The odd pieces that were outside the border of the puzzle represented people I needed to pray for, to bring them in. These deaths were just outside the bloodline; I was to enlarge my borders! These are people who will affect people in the family. There are people we don’t know to pray for; we don’t know what will be hap-pening in their lipening in their lives. I said to Debbie, “He is enlarging my borders.”Just a few days later, a monstrous tornado hit in Joplin. My cousin Mark was supposed to be in Joplin for more training for his job with Con-Way Truckload. But they weren’t ready for him yet, and his trip was delayed by a week. His brother Rob also is a truckdriver for the company, and was in Maine the day the tornado hit. Then Monday morning, I found out about two more. The wife and daughter of an uncle who divorced “out of the family,” whom I have never met, were in Joplin, and they left just one hour before the tornado hit! I could have lost two family members, and two more I didn’t know to pray for, but none of them were there!were there!

As Christians, we have the responsibility to pray for people in our families and in our ter-ritory. Ask yourself what your territory is. Ask God what it is. We all have people in our families or associated with our families who need us to be praying for them, that they will come to know Jesus, for their safety, and for their blessing. They need us to intercede for them. Think about the word “responsibility.” If you separate it into two words, it is “Re-sponse-ability.” We have the Ability to Respond. We have authority in our family, and we have the ability to pray for them and respond in a Christ-like way to them. It is more than a “duty,” it is an ability. You are equipped; God equips you to what He calls you to do. You can be a light in a dark place. You can speak life over your “Whole Household.”

June 1st, 2011