Burning Burden

As I flew back from Chennai after a coworkers training, a deep burden consumed me as though fire was burning intensely in my heart. The feeling was so strong and the burden so heavy that I could only groan for the brothers whom the Lord burdened me to pray for. The anxious concern for them bled my heart and I felt as though a knife was pierced deep into my heart; and was bleeding, and as if dripping down drops of blood. Yet I thanked the Lord for this blessed burden. I reckon it as a blessing from the Lord, to learn to pray and intercede for my fellow brethren. 

There are seven brothers in this burden. And all them are extreme cases to my discernment of their condition; the feeling the Lord gave me, as I interceded for them, was the yardstick. 

The first one is a dear brother with whom I used to have sweet fellowship and prayer from my college days. He is a wonderful and spiritual brother. He has a feeling of not being free to even meet me as he thinks I have endorsed a particular gifted member legitimately or "cultistically." Though I, with all sincerity and purity of heart, extend my brotherly fellowship to him, he wrote me back on his reservation of meeting me. Though I was not offended at all,  but I had a deep feeling to just pray and pray that the Lord would remove any hindrance that prevents our brotherly fellowship. Deep within, I dearly love him and pray that the Lord would bless him, no matter what. I  would rejoice in his prosperity and one day, perhaps, we will restore our brotherly fellowship. My blessing to him and his wife. 

The second one is an elderly brother and sister who loves me so much, and always treat me as their own son. Though I enjoyed their love and care, my burden for them is that they would be fully blended into the Body life. He had warmly agreed to be introduced to the brothers in the church for further fellowship. May the Lord bless them and grace them to see the Body, know the Body and live in the Body. 

The third one is a spiritual son of mine from my training days some fourteen years ago. This time round I could not meet him due to his busy schedule. But at least I had the consolation that he had apologized for not being able to meet me. My prayer for him is for his family and his marriage that he would find a match and be a living testimony for the Lord in the church life in Chennai. 

The fourth one is a dear brother who has been going through extreme difficulties in his marriage life and job life. Now and then I used to pray with him and fellowship with him. I could feel the same pain and pressure he has been going through. Our prayer has always been for the Lord to gain us through the circumstances and that the Lord would turn the work of the enemy into His multifarious wisdom and put the enemy to an open shame. And that his family and in-laws and all their relatives be recovered for the church life, and pray further that his family become pillar for the Lord's testimony in his locality. 

The fifth one is a dear brother and also my former teacher who was instrumental in ushering me to the church life. My love for him as a teacher and brother has never died down. Every time I visited Chennai I would try to pay a visit to his family. And almost all the time I did so, he would invite me for love feast along with the fellowship on our subjective experiences of Christ. May the Lord bless him and his family. 

The sixth and seventh ones are the brothers who lives with me and are on the process of recovering from their own problems. These are not spiritual in nature at all, in fact very worldly and are almost beyond human control. But still they are my brothers and I love them. Despite their condition whatsoever, I pray with my family daily for their complete recovery, psychologically, physically and spiritually. Trusting in the Lord and believing in our own prayer, I look forward to the day they would be pillars for the church in Gurgaon. 

These seven wonderful burdens have consumed my time on my flight journey from Chennai to Delhi last night. Having released all these burdens before the Lord in prayer, I was unloaded in peace as the flight landed. 

Thank God for these brothers. Though they may not be aware of my prayer and burden concerning them, at least it gave me a solid time of prayer and fellowship with the Lord. If not for these burdens, my two hours flight would have been very boring, and that time would just have been wasted. Praise the Lord for the prayer burden that burned me and burdened my time to fruition!  

Burning burdens are blessed burdens!