Good Night, Lord: Inspiration for the End of the Day

By Quin Sherrer

Spending quiet moments to reflect and renew at the end of your day can bring you untold inner serenity. Home, family, friends, and neighbors--these are a woman's "garden," her sphere of influence. Quin Sherrer shows you how to cultivate and tend your garden to reap a bountiful spiritual harvest. Based on Sherrer's own personal experiences, these delightful, sometimes heartrending stories will encourage you to gain the most from each day--no matter how chaotic or ordinary it may seem at the time. Do you feel overworked? Or somehow out of balance? Are you too often fearful, angry, or unforgiving? Quin Sherrer has been there, too, and emerged stronger than ever with the help of the Lord. Good Night, Lord is the perfect way to end your day and begin tomorrow renewed!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 15, 2000
• ISBN: 9781441268679

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

OF INFLUENCE

Every woman, at one time or another, ponders the question of her significance—we all want to make a difference in the lives of our families and the people God brings across our paths. We desire to have a positive, encouraging and uplifting effect on others.

The truth is, no woman’s life is insignificant. Each of us has a specific sphere of influence and a unique journey God intends for us to take. With the different roles we assume and the ever-changing circumstances in which we find ourselves, the road changes.

Someone once said that every time you encounter another person, you both receive either a charge to or a drain on your spiritual battery. No one has a neutral effect on others. Each of us continually exerts influence—to bless or wound, to help or hurt. No matter how ordinary you may think your life (or how chaotic), you not only have a sphere of influence, but you also have the potential to move spiritual mountains through your consistent and persistent prayers for those you influence.

Over the years I’ve come to believe it is every woman’s responsibility to recognize her field of influence, to tend and bless it, to defend it in prayer and, as a result, to experience the harvest God will bring.

My field of influence has changed with the seasons of my life. Yours will, too. Changes could include marriage, rearing children, a career, an empty nest, retirement, possible widowhood. But no matter how your field widens or narrows, you will have some type of influence over it.

Once when reading a passage of Scripture about one of David’s mighty men, Shammah, whose name means God is there, I was struck with the revelation that I as a woman had a field to defend in the spiritual realm. The story goes:

When the Philistines [the enemy] banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils [beans], Israel’s troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory (2 Sam. 23:11, 12).

While Shammah took his stand to defend his bean patch—his turf—it was the Lord who brought the victory. So it is with us. When we are faithful to pray for those people for whom God has called us to intercede, He brings about the victory. Maybe not in our expected time frame and surely not always in the ways we envision, but always for our good and His ultimate glory.

DEFENDING YOUR BEAN PATCH

At the beginning of time, God put man in the Garden of Eden to tend, guard and keep watch over it (see Gen. 2:15). This Scripture is significant because it is the first mention of watching over. God wants us to keep the enemy out of the territory He has entrusted to us—to guard the boundaries of the field as watchmen in the Bible did.

Defending my bean patch consists of praying for my family, friends, extended family, neighborhood, city, nation and the country God puts on my heart. Your field will vary from mine, but we pray for some of the same things as the Lord leads us: for blessings (physical and financial), for direction, protection, provision and, if the people we pray for don’t know the Lord, for salvation.

When I pray, I’ve learned to be explicit in my requests and persistent in bringing them before God. I’ve found that praying with prayer partners has enhanced my prayer life. I call it the prayer of agreement.

I have discovered the hard way that I can’t pray with obstacles in my heart: no unbelief, no unforgiveness and no unconfessed sin. I’m learning—always learning—new ways to pray for my field, but it’s only through the leading of the Holy Spirit that I can know my prayers are aligned with God’s will.

So often we forget who we are and to whom we belong. By reaffirming what God’s Word says about us we can drive away every dark doubt. Agreeing with the Word of God is a sure way to gain victory over insecurities, feelings of inferiority and low self-image. Here’s what God’s Word says about you:

God is at work in you to will and work for His good pleasure (see Phil. 2:13).

The Lord knows everything about you. He knows when you sit and when you rise; He perceives your thoughts before you ever give them words. He is familiar with all your ways (see Ps. 139: 1-3; read verses 13-18).

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for you (see Ps. 138:8).

You are his workmanship [handiwork] created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that you should do them (see Eph. 2:10).

If you have accepted Christ, you are God’s daughter—a King’s daughter, clothed in strength and dignity (see Prov. 31:25, TLB). Strength is the quality of being strong—the capacity to sustain force without yielding or breaking. Dignity is the quality of being stately; it is nobility of manner; it is the quality of being excellent, worthy or honorable. Women who follow Christ are powerful women—persons of strength, might, authority and ability.

As we take our places where God has planted us, becoming watchmen for that field and focusing our trust on Him, we can be sure He will direct our lives and our intercession.

One writer put it this way:

You may not think your little field is very important. But God has set you in your field as a watchman. Most of us don’t realize it, but our sphere of influence is much larger than we can ever imagine—and will continue on for generations to come, be it good or evil. It’s a wonderful responsibility—frightening at times—but wonderful. Always remember, though, you’re never in your watchtower alone. Jesus is ever with you and His Spirit will whisper just the things you need to say and do.¹

It is my prayer that before you are finished reading this book, you will desire to live intentionally and with a God-given sense of destiny in your bean patch—your field of influence. By doing so, you will make an eternal difference!

Lord, thank You that You consider me special, significant, a woman with a purpose. Thank You that You will begin to show me more specifically what my field of influence is so that I can pray with greater sensitivity. I want my prayers to be breathed by Your Holy Spirit. I am so glad I’m Your daughter. Thank You, Lord. Amen.

Note

1. Jamie Buckingham, The Nazarene (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Publications, 1991), p. 89.

PART ONE

ORDINARY DAYS

When you end the day and you want to say Good night, Lord, how do you express what’s really on your heart? I found myself in that position when I was a busy younger mom just starting to write down my prayers in a journal. I didn’t know it then, but I was forming the habit of giving every day to God.

Some of those prayers are recorded here, beginning with the time when my children were young and progressing to my role as a grandmother of five today. The stories I’ve included with the prayers deal with issues common to every woman’s life. Hopefully, some of the incidents I describe will encourage you to rely on God through the ups and downs of your own life.

Raised by a single working mom, I know firsthand what it’s like to help care for three younger siblings, to help run a boarding house, to work two jobs to go to school and later to rear three children of my own (all born in less than four years). It is in this type of environment, the home, that our greatest spiritual battles are fought and won.

ON AN ORDINARY AFTERNOON

Corrie ten Boom used to say, Our everyday life is our battle place.¹ It is often the day-in, day-out events of life that provide some of the biggest opportunities to pray what’s on our hearts. It is also when we need to remain the most alert. For instance, we need to be on guard in our minds: the devil will attempt to plant thoughts in our minds that don’t agree with truth as found in God’s Word. We need to be on guard in our hearts—against attitudes and emotions that will give the devil a foothold in our lives. And we need to be on guard with our mouths against speaking unbelief, slander and sarcasm (see Ps. 141:3). You never know what an ordinary day might bring.

Every summer my friend Jackie (not her real name) traveled from her home in the South to attend her annual family reunion in the North. As one of few Christians in her extremely large family of siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, she had prayed for the salvation of her family for many years.

Last summer she went to the reunion again. As they sat around visiting one afternoon, one of Jackie’s sisters stood up and said, These reunions are so nice that I think we should continue them someday in heaven. But we had all better be sure we’re going to heaven. So, Jackie, would you come up here and pray with all of us, so we can go to heaven and get to come to other family reunions?

Jackie was shocked but honored. She rose from her chair and stood beside her sister and began speaking: "Praying for salvation is special, but it isn’t just so we can go to heaven. It’s special for here on earth, too. Jesus came to give us abundant life. Salvation also includes healing, safety and protection. So will you all just pray out loud after me?

Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus and admit I am in need of Your forgiveness, mercy, grace, peace . . . As she continued leading them in a prayer to surrender their wills to His purposes, each person there repeated the prayer after her. In all, 40 of her relatives came to the Lord that day—a day that was seemingly little different from any other.

God is calling you to defend a specific bean patch comprising your family and all the other people He has placed within your field of influence. He wants you to keep that patch free from predators that would threaten their well-being. Your first line of defense is your willingness to take up the challenge to pray and then to rely on God for the outcome.

Yes, even on ordinary days it’s important to remember to whom we belong: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine (Isa. 43:1).

Note

1. Corrie ten Boom, Marching Orders for the End Battle (Ft. Washington, Penn.: Christian Literature Crusade, 1969), p. 23.

I [Jesus] am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].

MARK 11 : 24, AMP

I hate to admit it, but my early prayer life was more crisis-based than belief-based. When one of my children was headed to the emergency room, I would cry in panic, Lord, do something, because I can’t. Other times I prayed what I would call general bless us prayers.

Many years ago at a writer’s conference, I was seated across the dinner table from Catherine Marshall, whom I’d long admired. I knew her reputation as an author and praying mother. I asked her, Can you give me some advice on how to pray more effectively for my three children?

She replied, Be as specific in your prayers as you can and plant waiting prayers for your children’s future. She told me she had prayed specifically for her son’s future when he was still small; God had far exceeded what she had asked for. She called it planting waiting prayers—prayers that wouldn’t be answered until some future date.

She also encouraged me to begin keeping a prayer journal, advising me to write down brief prayers and later to jot down how and when God had answered them.

Later that evening at the conference she challenged all of us with a startling question: When you pray, do you really expect anything to happen?

After I arrived home, I began to dig through the Bible to read everything I could find on prayer. Among other insights, I discovered that God is pleased with prayers of thanksgiving, petition, confession, praise and intercession. And sometimes He wants us to fast while we pray.

For more than 25 years now I have kept a prayer diary, journaling God’s faithful answers. I’ve watched Him deal with each member of my family and gently bring three wandering youngsters back to Himself.¹ Not that all my requests have been granted! But as I have developed a closer intimacy with the Lord, I have come to understand that He wants the best for us.

GOOD NIGHT, LORD

Lord, how glad I am that You care about every detail of my life and the lives of my family. Thank You for Your faithfulness to us over the years. Forgive my times of doubt and unbelief. Forgive me for waiting until crisis times to come asking. Help me to trust You even as I wait for some long-ago breathed prayers to still be answered. I love You tonight, Lord, not so much for what You do for me but for who You are—a faithful Father. Amen.

Note

1. Quin Sherrer, Miracles Happen When You Pray (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), pp. 16, 17.

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

PROVERBS 31 : 27

A woman’s home has always been her greatest sphere of influence—even in Bible times, when the Hebrew mother shared the responsibility with the father for training her children and expressed the gift of hospitality.

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jewish nation into exile, the rabbis referred to the home as a small sanctuary or miniature temple. . . . The home, like the Temple, was to be set aside for the worship of God, a house of study to learn the Torah, and the serving of the community needs. . . . Each home was to reflect God’s glory through prayer and praise.¹

Anne Ortlund believes that a Christian home is a powerful show-and-tell. She writes: Through the years, Christian homes have won more Christian converts than all preachers and teachers put together.²

Your home is God’s provision for you. It can be a blessing to others and a tool of ministry to the people God sends your way. But there is no one—absolutely no one—more important to serve and love than the very family God has placed in your home.

We have had a special plaque hanging in our kitchen for years. Its words represent the principles we hold most dear as a family:

God Made Us a Family

We need one another.

We love one another.

We forgive one another.

We work together.

We play together.

We worship together.

Together we use God’s Word.

Together we grow in Christ.

Together we love all men.

Together we serve our God.

Together we hope for heaven.

These are our hopes and ideals;

Help us to attain them, O God;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.³

Lord, once again I make this my prayer. Amen.

Notes

1. Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1989), pp. 214, 215.

2. Anne Ortlund, Disciplines of the Home (Dallas: Word, 1990), p. 41.

3. The Christian Family Standard, adopted by the Family Life Committee of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Quoted in Helping Families Through the Church (St. Louis: Concordia, 1957), n.p.

The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

MATTHEW 25 : 40

For 10 years my mother operated a boarding house in Tallahassee, Florida, to help support and educate her four children. I was the oldest.