Some friends of ours needed to borrow a pair of tin snips so they could make a few cuts to fix some gutters on their home. The wife turned to Facebook asking if anyone had a pair? My husband let them know that they could borrow his. Truth be told, he probably has several pairs. When he said something to me, much to his surprise, I busted out laughing. I told him to read *Sarah’s post again. Sarah misspelled a word that drastically changed what she was asking for and I found it funny. She was trying to ask for a pair of snippers, but since the dreaded red, squiggly line appeared below it, she changed the spelling to the “suggested” spelling of snipers. There is a BIG difference between a sniper (think Chris Kyle) and a pair of snippers for cutting metal. I pictured her with an SR-25 shooting away at that piece of gutter. Funny, right?

Anyhow, gutters are quite nice to have on your home, especially here in Florida where it rains pretty much every day for six months out of the year. Nobody wants to walk off their back porch only to be hit with the deluge of rain water coming off their roof. The gutters help direct the water to the ground in a much less violent way. If you live in an area that gets the pleasure of experiencing Fall, then gutters can be a lot of work clearing out all the leaves. If the gutters are not cleared of debris, then the flow of water is stopped from its intended path. Sin blocks us from God in the same way.

Sin, of any kind, builds up in our hearts and minds. It blocks us from God; slowly at first. We start telling ourselves things like: I don’t need to pray, God already knows what I am going to say. It’s no big deal if I don’t go to church EVERY Sunday. We begin to tell ourselves that it is just a little sin. Unfortunately, sin like a lot of other things, just leads to more sin. Before we even know it there is a “block” in our spiritual life. When that blockage gets to be too much we start dumping our garbage onto other people just like the water overflowing from a blocked gutter. Our spiritual gutters are in need of cleaning.

The same is true with our burdens. We keep them to ourselves. Perhaps we are afraid to share what is bothering us, afraid others will look at us differently. The longer we keep the burdens to ourselves, the more damage they cause. We start believing the lies of our own minds. We feel convinced that God should have healed us even though He owes us nothing. We convince ourselves that there is some sin in our life that we are not seeing and that is why we are sick, broke, or jobless. The longer we let this burden block our spiritual life, the more dangerous it becomes. All too often we become angry at God. Why hasn’t He healed me when I am serving Him so much? Why does Joe Schmoo down the street have it so easy and he doesn’t even believe in God? Sadly, this can go on until we don’t even talk to God anymore. Our spiritual gutter isn’t flowing with life giving water because we have clogged it up with so many false thoughts. 2 Corinthians 10:5 ” We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” It is difficult to take every thought captive. It is definitely a repeat, repeat, repeat kinda prayer.

Sarah and her husband *Charles came over with the their son to get the tin snips. After visiting for a while, Charles asked if we would pray for him. I replied, “I’ll grab the oil.” When someone asks for prayer, pray right then regardless of where you are. Charles has an unknown illness. Blood work shows nothing out of the ordinary. It could be viral. Nothing he has tried for years has healed him. In fact, he has gotten worse. What was once a pea-sized wound is now the size of a playing card, deep within his dermis and muscle, and spreading. Charles is a highly intelligent man that is very familiar with the medical field. He is at his wits end trying to find an answer. I know first hand that having a diagnosis, a name to put to an issue, is comforting. Charles is in excruciating pain. Since we hadn’t seen them in a while, we were shocked by how bad his condition had gotten.

We anointed him with oil, laid hands on him, and prayed…as a family. We each took turns praying for him and his wife. Praying life, healing, peace, and joy. Matthew 18: 20 reassures us that Christ was with us, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” We could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I love when we can’t find the words, the Holy Spirit provides them. It was a powerful time of pray. After we prayed, we put on some worship music and allowed the Holy Spirit to do what only it can do.

We have this saying at my church, “We are better together”. We are also stronger together. That is where you come in. I do NOT believe there are any coincidences in God’s world. When Sarah typed snipers instead of snippers, maybe it was God saying, “Get others to pray also, even from a distance.” Please join me in praying for our friend, Charles. May your prayers be like the shot of a sniper; precise and from a long distance. I want Charles to feel your prayers even from hundreds of miles away. I want him to feel the pinpoint precision of your prayers piercing this disease like the bullet from a sniper rifle. We are stronger together, so let’s pray together.

John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” Let’s help Charles get that flow of living water coursing through the very fibers of his being.