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It is only two days before Christmas. I want to wish you the merriest Christmas ever, and remember the true meaning of the day.
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I have another excerpt from the book, “Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.” This chapter talks about people who were dying and survived through the power of prayer. The doctors could give no other exclamation.
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Chapter 19
Life Is Fragile; Handle with Prayer
The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 145:18–19
I received an advertisement for a book that claims to have information in it that no industry wants you to read. It says it is full of ideas to beat the system, pay less for everything, and how to beat death.
The last claim intrigued me because I may want to live forever. (I know what you’re thinking: We all are going to live forever together with God in heaven anyway. I just wanted to tease you little bit.) I looked at the section of the ad where it listed several “forbidden” secrets to long life and good health.
The most interesting thing they found was that patients healed faster when they were prayed for—even by strangers. This was a claim thatDukeUniversityresearchers set out to test in a double-blind study of heart patients. They wanted to find out if prayer works not only if you pray for yourself, but also if some stranger prays for you. (They probably could have saved time and money by asking us—right?)
What they found out was amazing to them: Patients who were prayed for by people who didn’t even know them had drastically lower rates of complications. The interesting thing is that these patients were never told that anyone was praying for them just in case knowing that would make them feel better by the power of suggestion.
I read through the rest of the amazing secrets, and I may check out how bananas help fight depression, or how frozen peas kill foot pain, but that will have to wait for now.
The fact that there is research on prayer is encouraging, but you and I know that it works, and we never spent a dime on checking it out. Kind of like the Nike slogan: We just do it.
I have a shocking revelation for the entire world, including those researchers: God is real and does answer prayer! I am living proof of that. I cried out to Him one day in 2001. He heard my cries, comforted me and lifted me up.
God isn’t some idol or figure you stand in front of and worship. He isn’t something artificial you pray to about something and then hope for the best and watch the movement of the stars for an answer. He came down to this earth in human flesh and became one of us. He cried. He was in pain. He was in fear. He showed anger. Then after all this, He died for you and me so we wouldn’t have to feel the eternal pain of sin, fear and sadness. When He was placed on that cross, everything changed. He bled and died so that we would have a place to come home to when we go through our time of physical death.
God listens to every word we say during prayer—or any other time—and wants to help us through the bad spots and smiles with us in the good spots.
Does it seem like there are more bad spots than good spots? Do you wonder why everything seems to be piling up? Do you want to stay strong only to have the burdens of the day weigh you down as if a rhino were sitting on you? PRAY!
God wants to hear from us. Like the bumper sticker says, “Life is fragile; handle with prayer.” When days become more than we can handle, the best option is to talk to God about it.
Day after day, the paycheck you’ve been promised doesn’t appear in the mail. The water heater bursts and you have no hot water to bathe your children. The used car you just bought has decided it would rather sleep in your garage than be driven. The landlord had said you could have a little more time to pay the rent, but he is under pressure from his boss and has been knocking at your door every day now. You fear going to the doctor because he has some tests he wants to talk to you about.
You are not alone, my friend. There are many people in very similar circumstances. PRAY!
God is a loving God, and He wants us to come to Him with our burdens. This world is tough enough with God in our lives. How scary it is to try to go through life without God. We can give Him our worries, our illness, our failures and our anger, and let Him calm the storm—or calm us in the storm. Maybe He won’t take the storm away, but He will give us His grace and peace while we go through it.
I try to focus on what God wants for me instead of on what I want from God. God wants us to depend on Him for our needs, but He is not there to fix everything for us. We can ask for direction and He will give it to us. We can ask to be rich and famous, but that may not happen.
We can—and should—ask God to fill our hearts with His love to sustain us through troubled times. We can—and should—ask Him to calm our spirits so that when the storm hits, we will not let depression overcome us. Depression lets Satan in the front door to try to convince us that God does not care or want to be of help. The prince of darkness wants us to struggle on our own—a sure road to defeat.
I have had my own battles with depression for years, and God has had His hand on my shoulder ever since I turned my depression over to Him. I still have some low days, but now I know God is there for me, and I can make it with His help.
To say that life is fragile is an understatement. I have been battling illnesses for years, and had more surgeries in a three-year time span than most people have in a lifetime. That is why I am very encouraged to see the “forbidden” news that prayer works for patients.
The nurses at my doctors’ offices know me by my first name. (Not really, but it seems like it.) And I think there’s a bed at the hospital with my name on it since I’m there so often.
Before my most serious surgery, a quadruple bypass, my whole family was there praying for me. I was smiling and joking. I had turned it over to God, and I was at peace. After the surgery the doctor said my heart was in amazing shape considering all the arteries that had been clogged. I am alive today because God was there holding my hand and guiding the doctors’ hands.
God doesn’t want us to waste our lives by worrying about anything. Jesus said that worry never added one inch to a person’s height or one day to his life. He is right. Worry only tears at the mind and soul. Life is too short to spend even a minute of it in fear.
Give it all up in prayer. Let God carry you the rest of the way—just like He is doing for me.
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Psalm 91:14–16
Further Adventures
Do you feel down-trodden? Looking at high walls around you? Does it seem like you’re sinking in the quicksand? You certainly are not alone. There are many people on this planet who are in the same sinking boat you are.
But you can get out of that boat, climb over those walls and hold your head high if you let God take over your life. Don’t try to face life alone. It is a tough battle at best. Take five minutes and speak to God about the barriers in your life. In my own life, I felt an instant change come over me. I wasn’t out of the woods yet, but the path I was hiking on had beautiful flowers and lakes to see. And I wasn’t walking alone. God was there, reminding me that He had created all those beautiful things I was enjoying along the way to recovery.
Something to Ponder
Isn’t it funny how people are amazed that prayer works?