Tomato Stakes

I recently finished a book entitled Intercessory Prayer: How God Can Use Your Prayers to Move Heaven and Earth (Dutch Sheets). The following excerpt based on Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens,” describes what so many of you are doing for our family right now.

“We’re not merely to carry burdens for our brothers and sisters in Christ; we’re to carry them away . . . Big difference! One involves sharing a load; the other involves removing a load. Actually, two words are used for ‘bearing’ in the New Testament. One word could be construed to mean standing beside a brother or sister in times of need to strengthen and comfort. The other, however, means some thing entirely different.

The first one, anechomai, means ‘ to sustain, bear or hold up against a thing,’ much as a person would tie a stake to a tomato plant to sustain it from the weight it carries. The strength of the stake is transferred to the plant and thus ‘bears it up.’ When the Lord commands us to bear with one another in Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:2, He isn’t simply saying, ‘Put up with one another.’

Although He is telling us to do that, He is also saying, ‘Stake yourselves to one another.’ In other words, we’re to come alongside a weak brother or sister who is ‘weighted down’ and say, ‘You’re not going to fall and be broken or destroyed, because I’m staking myself to you.”

The strength of the stake is transferred to the plant – I love thinking about that in the context of the body of Christ! We feel that strength that comes from  the tenacity of your commitment to shove your stake in the ground alongside us and support, support, support.

Thanks to your stakes, the fruit of the Spirit is growing on our vine!

Enjoying this time off of Tarceva. Have added a pound . . . maybe even two. Strength is gaining. God is good all the time and we are blessed.