There’s no doubt that God has given my husband and I a heart for Jerusalem. Psalms 122:6 says, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “They shall prosper that love thee.” The word prosper translated from the Hebrew word shalah doesn’t quite mean what we’d think. Rather, according to Strong’s Concordance, it means to be at ease.
Being so far removed, literally halfway around the world, from Jerusalem, it’s not always easy to remember to pray so I leave myself little reminders in places I’ll see every day. Like one of my home pages has a picture of the Temple Mount, another has the header written in Hebrew, and the header of this blog is a replica of Solomon’s Temple. I have Hebrew calendars and a Jewish Study Bible, which I read along with my NIV when reading from the Old Testament.
When we pray for Jerusalem something amazing happens, it’s a fullness, a completeness, a peace, a sense of ease. I imagine it’s like the woman touching the hem of Jesus garment, or what is also known as the tallit, but that is a whole different blog for another day.
So, I guess you’d like to know why I’m excited. Well, about a year ago I attended a Winter Jam. During an intermission the audience, including me, was introduced to some of the children needing sponsorship through World Vision. My heart cried out, but at the time there was nothing I could do. It’s one of those things that needs to be discussed with the family. In November, I attended Women of Faith and again we were introduced to more children and again my heart cried out, this time there was an even greater pull, but yet again, there was nothing I could do. This past Thursday, dh and I attended the Third Day concert. He was as far back as I was up front. When Third Day’s tour pastor read off the names of a few of the children and their countries, one called to me more than all the others. I quickly met up with dh. There was very little discussion. In fact, it went something like this–Me: I want to sponsor a child. Him: The one from Jerusalem. (It wasn’t a question, it was go get him.)
When we met up after the concert we discovered we had not only one, but two! I can’t wait until we receive our packets from World Vision about the children we have the honor, not only to sponsor, but to pray for.