A New Way to Pray the BARRICK FAMILY ANDY, LINDA, JEN and JOSH Table of Contents
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FEARLESS A New Way to pray THE BARRICK FAMILY ANDY, LINDA, JEN AND JOSH Table of contents 03 EMBRACE THE CURE 07 ENTER THE THRONE ROOM 13 MAKE IT PERSONAL 19 STOP BEGGING AND START PRAISING 24 TRUST GOD FOR SOMETHING GREATER PUBLISHED BY HOPE OUT LOUD © 2020 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® COPYRIGHT © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA, INC.® USED BY PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE. Introduction “Fear not” is the most repeated command in the Bible. Perhaps because God knew we would struggle more with fear than any other emotion. Fear comes in many different forms: fear of the unknown, fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of not being enough, fear of dying, fear of disease and suffering. The list could go on and on. Fear can be paralyzing and it keeps us from experiencing the blessings God has for us every day. Our bodies weren’t intended to carry the burden of fear and anxiety. In fact, 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (NKJV). However, with the Covid-19 pandemic, anxiety has increased in almost all of us as we watch the news and see more people dying all over the world. Covid-19 has impacted our day to day lives with social distancing, isolation, increase of unemployment and fears of economic decline. The good news is that if you or someone you know is suffering from fear and anxiety, there’s hope. Many times, fear and anxiety are situational, or related to seasons of life or circumstances beyond our control. We are not psychologists, nor are we advocating that you just “will” yourself to feel better. We believe in pursuing medical, professional help and trying natural, biblical, holistic methods. Getting counseling is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness. Always remember that God sees you and He loves you so much. He is walking beside you holding your hand and He will guide you one day at a time. We are a family, just like you, who found ourselves in a crisis we could not control and reached out to God for help in our most desperate circumstances. What He did and continues to do for us is nothing short of miraculous. He reached down and restored our hope. He gives us strength to face each new day. We want to share our journey with you to encourage you that no matter what you are facing right now, help and healing are possible. You can have hope again! You don’t have to walk through this season of fear and anxiety alone. Let us walk with you! We may not know what you are going through, but we know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed by uncertainty. We know you are going to need someone to journey with you. We’re praying that Romans 15:13 becomes your new normal in the next few days: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. WWW.HOPEOUTLOUD.COM PAGE 2 Embrace the Cure Our 15-year-old daughter Jen wasn’t Our whole world turned expected to live through the night. Her brain activity was the same as a dead person; she upside down in 2006 lay unconscious in a coma for five weeks. To this day, she suffers from a severe traumatic when our family was hit brain injury that has changed almost everything about her life - her memory, her by a drunk driver. motor skills, her eyesight, her abilities, her We were a normal family riding home friendships, her personality and, surprisingly, together in our minivan one Sunday night just her prayers. a mile from our house when a man ran us over going 80 miles an hour in a full-sized When Jen first emerged from a coma and pickup truck. The impact was so great, our began the long, difficult recovery of learning to van was crushed beyond recognition. We talk and walk and eat again, our prayer was never even saw him coming. urgent and singular: “God, please heal our daughter.Restore her quality of life!” I prayed All four of us were critically injured and it day and night. I screamed it. I cried it. I evacuated to different hospitals in different whispered it in the night. To me, this meant cities. My husband Andy and I were getting Jen back to her old life, back to high separated and wouldn’t see each other for school and sports and normal activities. almost three weeks. WWW.HOPEOUTLOUD.COM PAGE 3 Jen prayed day and night as well. Because her new personality made her completely uninhibited, she said everything she thought out loud. This meant she prayed out loud. We began to notice something different about Jen’s prayers. She never once asked God to heal her. In fact, she never asked God for anything. When she prayed it sounded like she was literally sitting at the feet of Jesus. She’d say things like, “Daddy, I don’t want to miss one thing you have for me today!” Her whole countenance would be glowing and it seemed as if she was listening and having a two-way conversation with God. That’s when I first began to realize that I was missing something about prayer that Jen seemed to be encountering. The best way we know how to describe what happened to Jen is that her body and mind were broken, but her spirit was alive and whole. Because her flesh was so weak, her spiritual nature was accentuated. Before she could recognize most of her family members by name, she started praying out loud for hours, having these intimate conversations with God where she appeared to be receiving her daily agenda, strength and joy right from the throne room of heaven! I didn’t know what to think at first. This didn’t fit into my limited experience with prayer where you ask God for something and He either says “yes” or “no.” It had never dawned on me that there was so much more to prayer than anything I had ever experienced before. You may not have been run over by a drunk driver, but chances are, something has run you over or wrecked your “normal.” Our hope and prayer is that God will use our family’s experiences to expand your view of who He is and open your eyes to new possibilities that are greater than you could ever imagine because of your pain and suffering. God never wastes a tear or a trial. If you are suffering from fear and anxiety right now, God’s intent is not to harm you, but to prepare a way for you to know Him in ways you never could when life was normal. When bad things happen, our first reaction as humans is to look for a way to fix it. If we are sick, we look for a cure. My husband Andy struggled in ways I couldn’t comprehend because as a father and protector, he couldn’t do anything to fix our daughter. Even still, we have no idea what her future holds or if she will ever live independently. I remember coming home for the first time after the car wreck. After three months of being in the hospital and then recovering at Andy’s parents’ one level home, Andy said, “I just want to see our house again. I want to walk through our front door.” WWW.HOPEOUTLOUD.COM PAGE 4 We couldn’t walk because both of us were still in wheelchairs, so we hobbled through the front door and crawled on our hands and knees up the steps to our daughter’s bedroom. What we found on a sticky note next to her bed was nothing short of miraculous. Keep in mind that at this point, we didn’t know if Jen would ever wake up from her coma and be able to talk to us again, so to find a note written in her handwriting was an overwhelming sweet sorrow and joy all at once. It was a message of hope. It was proof that God had been preparing Jen for this season of life. It was as if God Himself parted heaven and reached down to remind us He was still there. Written in her handwriting on a hot pink sticky note on the nightstand next to her bed were these words: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:6-7 The last verses Jen had memorized before her accident were God’s cure for fear and anxiety. Do you want to be fearless? It’s found in Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious!” Have you ever tried telling yourself to stop being anxious when you were overcome with fear? How did that work out for you? You can’t just stop something harmful without replacing it with something helpful. That’s why the verse continues to explain that the cure to stop being anxious is to start praying: Do not be anxious...but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God… WWW.HOPEOUTLOUD.COM PAGE 5 What About Unanswered Prayers? This is where many people give up because you tried praying before and it didn’t work for you.