JESUS CHRIST PRAYS FOR US!
GOSPEL READING : John 17. 20-26
How often do we remember that Jesus prays for us, for me, for you, as the ones who are in God’s plan for salvation? The Bible tells so clearly that, “…Who (Jesus) is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession us”(Romans 8:34). Whenever I feel no longer courageous to pray or feel overwhelmed by any dark situation, this very verse I always remember and then in the hands of Jesus lay my heart and all of the despair that is wearing me down because I know Somebody in Heaven is praying for me unceasingly day and night!
But I remember one day when this very Truth sounded powerfully again in my life. This true story happened in August 1967 when together with my brother Benjamin and our sister-cousin Jacqueline we visited our uncle in Gakungwe, 12 kilometers south of Bujumbura the Capital of Burundi. His house is still there even now next to the touristic place where a huge rock is set with these writings engraved on it : “Stanley-Livingstone, 1871”. It a remembrance site that this was the place where these two British explorers met.
Amos was our Uncle’s name and he lived from fishing on Lake Tanganyika which was only one kilometre far from his home. The best thing he could offer to us the children was to take us fishing at night in his little 2 seat wood-made boat. We were so glad to hear him making the proposal before we ate our supper. There was moonlight and as Uncle Amos told us, this was the best time for any fishers of this kind of little fish called “Muneke” to work on the lake. Otherwise fishing groups that use big hurricane lamps and large boats can only work when there is no moonlight as they have to attract bigger fishes around and catch them with strong nets.
So, we walked down to the lake around eight O’clock at night and reached the shore where uncle’s little boat was attached to a tree with strong warp threads. After releasing it, Benjamin and I helped him to push it into the water and we all got in and Uncle Amos seated at the back started rowing up into the lake. We reached a distance of approximately one kilometre from the shore and he stopped there and cast anchor. He was an angling fisher and used rather five hooks fixed on five separated points on a long nylon thread attached on a long flexible stick. He soon caught the first fishes which he pulled out of the water. They were so agitated and he wanted us to put them in the basket we had and cover it with a plastic sheet to avoid them jump back in the water. Uncle caught more and more “Muneke” small fishes but suddenly, something hit strongly the boat and fissured it and the water was springing up in it. We cried loudly and Uncle told us to quickly take the pan we had with us and start collecting the water and pour it back in the lake to avoid the boat to sink.
While we were doing so, Uncle Amos weighed anchor, and quickly started rowing back to the shore. We could hear him appealing upon the ghosts to rescue him since he was not a newborn Christian. Frightened, Benjamin and I and Jacqueline started crying loudly to Jesus: “O Lord Jesus, have mercy upon us!” Then came to my mind the story of Jesus and His Disciples crossing the Lake and how He commanded the waters to keep quite. So, I cried loudly “Jesus, rescue us as you rescued Peter and John!”. Unfortunately, the wind begun to blow pushing the boat back in the lake and we could see uncle Amos struggling courageously against it. This was the highest point of our adventure and Benjamin and I and Jacqueline lost hope and kept completely silent waiting to see the end. But this was also the precious time God had chosen for me to hear a voice murmuring in my heart and saying: “Jesus is praying for you !”
Then suddenly, another powerful wave pushed our boat to the shore and we all shouted with joy. When back at home, Uncle Amos told us that it was a big hippopotamus that had hit and fissured our boat. But, why didn’t it continue and overturn the little boat in the lake? Only Jesus knows! THANK YOU my Lord and Saviour, JESUS CHRIST!
Let’s pray together with the psalmist:
“O Lord. For you, O Lord, are all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.
Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
For He guards the lives of His faithful ones
And delivers them from
The hand of the wicked. AMEN. (Psalm 97. 9-10)
In Christ’s love
Bishop, Dr. Justin Baransananikiye
President,
CHRISTIANS STRENGTHENING CHRISTIANS,
http://iprayforyou.worthyofpraise.org
http://christiansstrengtheningchristian.doodlekit.com/blog
Email : baransajust@gmail.com