Power of Prayer

This morning, my pastor spoke about the importance of prayer.  He called his message “Count the Cost of Prayer.”  His main point—at least the main point that I picked up on—was that when you pray, you can expect something to happen.  When you ask God for something, His reply might be to ask you to do something for Him.

For some reason, one simple little prayer from my teenage years came to mind.  For a moment, I felt like I was back in my old bedroom, asking God for healing of a friend.

We were in 10^th grade, I believe.  My friend Brenda had a condition called scoliosis.  This caused her spine to curve into an S shape, and that resulted in a lot of pain for her.  Her doctor wanted to insert some metal rods into her back, in an attempt to help straighten her spine.  Brenda was scared.  One small slip during the operation, and she could be paralyzed.  Yet she knew that this was her best hope of leading a “normal” life.  The surgery was scheduled, and I promised to pray for her.

I can’t recall if I actually prayed with her at that point.  But I do remember talking to Jay and Karen, the youth leaders at my church, about Brenda.  The entire youth group gathered around me to pray for her healing.  The night before the surgery, I stretched my arm in the direction of Brenda’s home, praying for God to calm her and guide the hands of every doctor and nurse who would be involved in the surgery.  The day of the surgery, I prayed ever chance that I could.  If I could have just stayed at home and prayed for her, I would have.  Brenda wasn’t a Christian at the time.  She attended church sometimes, but had not yet made a commitment to Christ.  My prayer was that she would survive the surgery and know that it was Jesus that helped her through it all.

That was nearly 20 years ago now.  Brenda and I are still friends.  Sometimes I think about that surgery and about all of the praying that I did on her behalf, and I wonder if my prayers really made a difference.  She recently told me that it made a huge difference in her life.  She said it was the faith that I showed and the love that I gave her that drew her to Christ.  Today she is the mother of four who credits her recovery from that surgery and her healing from cancer to Christ.  She is looking to move her family out of state within the next year so that her husband can attend seminary.

Seeing the direction that Brenda’s life has taken leads to me one conclusion—Pastor Clive was right.  When you pray, things HAPPEN!