Somebody's Praying Me Through!

I know many of you may not have a clue where I am going with this article based on the title, but please bear with me for a moment. I think you will be glad you did. Throughout my life I have not been the best person I could have been. I have lied, cheated, and stole along with a multitude of other things that I am sure I don’t have to mention in order to make my point (Most of which was done in my teenage years). Even though I have always tried to be a decent person, a lot of times our best efforts are just not going to be good enough to get the job done. We all fall short of where we should be.

I grew up in church in a very uncommitted way. I was there sometimes. I learn a little and I went on with my life but I never truly committed to the lifestyle change that comes with being a Christian. Well after many years of being a heathen, I finally committed my heart to God while I was at Fort Jackson during basic training. After that, I started going to church and began my infant walk with Jesus.

Now, that was only five short years ago. I am still a child in Christ, learning new things everyday. However, the point of my story comes from one specific event in my life. After returning home from Iraq, my wife, in conjunction with my church, decided to throw me a welcome home party. During this party, they put on a power point presentation with photos of me and all my buddies in Iraq while the song, “Somebody's praying me through” played in the background! After the presentation was over I got up and gave a short speech to the church. During the course of my speech I made the statement, “thank God somebody was praying me through.”

The other night on my way to work, I finally understood what I really meant when I made that statement over two years ago. So many times throughout my life, I have been behind the wheel and have royally messed things up. So many times I should have been killed, broken, imprisoned and destroyed. However, here I am today healthy, free, unbroken and not destroyed. I have a good life and a wonderful family. I have received blessing after blessing after blessing and I have only just recently started to feel like I even understand the true power of prayer.

I said all that to bring you back to this one basic point. Many times throughout my life I was messing things up just as fast as I could but I had people praying for me. When I was younger I had my grandmother praying for me. As I got older my wife and my church family started praying for me. I thank God that somebody was praying me through. Please don’t overlook the power of prayer, especially when you are praying for others. I know I have been prayed through many situations. Now, it may be up to you to pray someone else through something they can’t get themselves out of. Maybe you should stand in the gap for that friend or loved one and pray them through. They will appreciate it even if they don’t know you did it for them. God will honor you for it and you will receive your own blessings for being unselfish with your prayers. Try it and see how it turns out! As for me, Thank God somebody was praying me through when I wasn’t.

Matthew Hilley

Hold your Child in Church and Receive a Blessing from God

Through my own personal experience I hope to offer a small bit of wisdom that may bring tremendous joy to a few people this Christmas season. Lately I have had several conversations with people about children in Church and how they should act and whether or not they should be in the sanctuary during preaching. I know in this day and time with the mega Churches offering huge child care facilities on sight it is tempting to parade your child off to another part of the Church. However, for myself, I believe a child should be present during preaching and teaching once they reach the age of 2 to 4 years depending on the child. That doesn’t mean I am totally against children going to the child care facilities all together. You are going to have cases when a child needs to get away and some times the parents need some worship time without their children. If you find yourself never having your children with you during preaching you should maybe rethink your position. I know some of you are going to say “my child will not mind” or children are a disruption to the service” or “to the move of God”. I say that is absolutely not true! First, you control your child not the other way around. Second, a child can not stop, disturb or impede God in any way. True sometimes children can disturb service but that is a moment by moment balancing act and a small risk worth taking. The Bible teaches us to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Pro 22:6). Even Jesus himself pointed out the importance of children in Matthew 19:14 when he said “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Just a few days ago I was standing during praise and worship at our Wednesday night service while the music was playing with my eyes closed and my hands raised trying to spend some time fellowshipping with God. My 3 year old son Michael, who had been quietly playing with a couple of matchbox cars tapped my on the leg. When I opened my eyes and looked down at him, he had a huge smile on his face and both hands reaching up to me. I was instantly overcome with joy. Now looking back I see a very symbolic importance on him reaching up to me while I was reaching up to my Father as well, but that is another story I suppose. When I saw him reaching up for me I didn’t hesitate to reach down and pick him up. Once in my arms I gave him a kiss on the cheek, told him I loved him and went right back to praising God with my eyes closed and one hand stretched up towards God. Well Michael wasn’t done with me just yet. He started to rub my face and rub my head while I was focusing on God. Well, once again I opened my eyes and looked at him; this time to my surprise he planted a kiss right on my face. After that sweet and gentle act of love from a son to his father he then proceeded to pay attention to the music and stretch out his hands to God as well. At that moment I felt pride and joy and love that my writing ability can not convey to you the reader. I was so happy in that single moment that I thought I would just bust into tears uncontrollably. Needless to say that small gift that was given to me by my son and God was like a spiritual lighting rod for the rest of the service. I discovered in an age of high tech equipment and satellite everything; sometimes you can still use a basic antenna to get the signal to come in just a little clearer. This Christmas season, go to Church and hold your child during praise and worship. Let them sit on your lap during preaching. Hold their hand while walking to the altar. If you try this just maybe you’ll have a really great moment etched in your memory like I do. At the very least you may just make your child happy! May God Bless each and every one of you!

Matthew Hilley

Army of Turkeys Delivered a Devastating Defeat against Satan's Army!

On Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Seneca SC was invaded by a small army of Turkeys. This frozen army of 100 launched their attack around 6:30 in the evening and by 9:30 they had driven back Satan’s army substantially. The army of Turkeys endured and carried out their mission despite the lack of light, the cold of night and the never ending rain. I know some of you may be reading this in total disbelief but every word of this is true. See, these Turkeys were armed with the Word of God and filled with the Light of Jesus. As they marched into night to defeat Satan, people could hardly believe their eyes. Wonder and amazement was on the face of many citizens as these Turkeys of God arrived in their neighborhood. Now I know many of you are still thinking there is no way this story is for real but I tell you each and every word is true. See, as the night progressed the Turkeys encountered many unbelievable battles. The Turkeys went up against some of Satan’s most valuable weapons and was able to hold their own. The Turkeys went up against suicide and calmed the tormented soul. They fought against alcoholism and shamed their enemy. They fought with hunger and vanquished it. They spoke to the deaf and gave direction to the lost. They even encountered other soldiers fighting the same fight along the way. Now as many of you may know a frozen Turkey can not walk, talk, lead or fight. It can’t even provide warmth, shelter or the smallest flicker of light. However, I tell you this because it is true. I have seen some amazing things that a frozen Turkey can do. I have seen an army of them marching through the streets of Seneca fighting against evil and winning.

Translation: On Wednesday night several members of the congregation of Living Water Church in Seneca along with the Pastor hit the streets of Seneca to hand out 100 Turkeys for free. This was an attempt to show love for the community and share the light of Jesus. During the course of the night we ran across many wonderful people and were able to minister to them about Jesus through the act of giving and loving. The night was full of surprises and unique experiences as you can probably tell from the short story above. Thank you for the time it took for you to read this. I just wanted to share this wonderful experience with others.

Matthew T. Hilley