Prayer Changes Things
I received a phone call at work one day that my dad had been involved in an accident and was being taken to a hospital about an hour away from where I was. He was mowing and the mower turned over and cut off his hand. As I hurried to the hospital, I first saw his boss there who told me how bad the injury was. His boss informed me that he had picked up fingers and brought them to the hospital. As I made my way into the surgery waiting to join my mom and a few close friends, I found my childhood pastor already there. As he embraced me, there were no encouraging words. There was a grief and sadness beyond spoken words in that embrace. There was only a silent prayer uttered on our behalf in that embrace. As the doctor came out and shared the details of the injury, I found myself physically ill. My dad was to have at least two more surgeries in just the next few days. There were only prayers escaping my heart at the moment.
I went home that night to pack a suitcase to come stay for an extended period of time with my parents. The next morning instead of being in a hurry to get back (which is not my norm) I spent an hour or two praying while I cooked muffins and some homemade goodies to take back to hospital with me. I prayed for my dad, his life, his recovery, his doctors, it was a sweet time of prayer for me before entering what would be pure craziness for awhile. When I arrived at the hospital much later than my family expected me, I discovered my dad’s room a total disaster and no one there. You see just a couple of hours before that, the words CODE BLUE came across hospital speakers and an emergency room doctor ran to my dad’s room and saved my dad’s life. So instead of finding my family in a hospital room with my dad, I found them in the ICU waiting room. I was SOOOOO frustrated with myself that I had not hurried back first thing or even just gone back in the middle of the night.
Two days later, I left the hospital for the first time and there was a song on the radio that I have never heard before and haven’t heard since. (despite looking like crazy for it) It was a song that talked about how prayer changes things. God directed my thoughts as I listened to that song. I remembered that the moments the words CODE BLUE rang over hospital speakers was the exact time I was making muffins and praying! Prayer Changes Things! I am 100% convinced that prayers saved my dad early that morning.
My family struggle in that season was an accident that took my dad’s hand. However, there are seasons that people find themselves in that are just as traumatic if not more so! Marriages are struggling, children are wayward, physical bodies are failing, emotional battles are being fought daily, financial burdens encumber many, consuming grief for those that have lost loved ones, dementia slowly taking away those we love, dads without jobs, and the list could keep going. As I wrote each one of those circumstances, I could personally identify at least one person, sometimes more, that find themselves in those very circumstances. There are no words I can offer those that can even begin to bring encouragement. However, I can go to war for them! I can battle on my knees for them.
Beth Moore says it better than I ever could...
WE’VE GOT TO PRAY.
WE’VE GOT TO BECOME PEOPLE OF PRAYER.
WE’VE GOT TO PRESS IN MUCH FURTHER AND BELIEVE GOD TO BE MUCH BIGGER.
WE’VE GOT TO CEASE LETTING PRAYER BE OUR WEAKEST SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE.
WE’VE GOT TO STEP IT UP AND WIELD THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT IN RELENTLESS INTERCESSION.
WE’VE GOT TO GO FURTHER THAN WE’VE GONE BEFORE IN PRAYER. PRESS HARDER. THINK HIGHER. DIG OUR KNEES IN DEEPER.
WE WILL NOT LIVE BOLDER THAN WE PRAY.
THERE ARE PARTS OF OUR CALLINGS, WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND DEFEATS OF THE DARKNESS THAT WILL COME NO OTHER WAY THAN FURIOUS, FERVENT, FAITH-FILLED, UNCEASING PRAYER.
It’s time we quit falling asleep in prayer. It’s time we quit practicing a prayer routine that bores us to tears. It’s time our quiet times ceased to be quiet. There are battles to be won. Works to be done. The kinds which only come through prayer, prayer, and more prayer.
It’s time we quit depending on someone else to do it for us.
It’s time for each of us to see in the mirror one of the most powerful people of prayer we may ever meet.
It’s time we prayed like we believed the risen Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, was right in our very presence. Because He is.
Excerpted from Beth Moore living Proof Blog! https://blog.lproof.org/2015/02/its-prayer-thats-the-thing.html
Questions to consider:
- How much of your day do you spend in prayer daily? None, 5 minutes out of 24 hours, an hour??
- What keeps you from spending time or more time with Him daily?
--Karen Smith
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