Has someone you’ve known in the past or even talked with recently, come to your mind and you can’t seem to get past your thoughts of them? Maybe that’s an open door to pray for them. Just take a moment and ask God to give them joy, a good experience, a healing touch … make something up. God knows just what they need, even before you ask, but pray God’s best for them.
A young girl with a painful, sprained ankle waited to be treated in the emergency room of a small hospital in upper Michigan. Her father, there to comfort and support his daughter wondered why the attending physician seemed preoccupied. When the doctor stepped from the room to take a phone call, the situation had to be confronted. Here was a child, in pain and needing the undivided attention of the doctor who was disappearing to take a phone call – more than once. I know what you’re thinking? I might have been thinking the same thing.
The doctor explained, “A traumatic accident happened on Mackinac Island and I was helping the doctor at the med station there with a risky procedure.” Would that explanation change your assumption? Would it have altered your next act?
This father went to his young daughter and said “We need to pray for that person on the Island who has just gone through this traumatic accident.” They didn’t know it then, but they would later discover they were praying life and God’s protection for a member of their own church congregation back home. The emergency room doctor was instructing the doctor on Mackinac Island how to insert a chest tube in a precarious top down position, instead of the normal from the bottom up. The doctor was clearly distracted – I’m thankful that he was; but even more than that, I’m thankful that John and Ashley realized in that moment God would hear their prayers for this unknown person a hundred miles away. James 5:16 “The fervent prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.”
Life is uncertain, even unstable sometimes. From Isaiah 43, I share this excerpt to give you hope and courage when you need it. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; You are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you; Do not be afraid, for I am with you;….“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”
The accident is in the past and while I won’t ever forget it, I know that it was for a purpose known only to God and he will bring something new from it. Something I need to learn or act on? Perhaps. All I know is, I am seeking God’s direction and guidance and if I’ve ever needed Him, it’s now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzcPAOIOU7w
Because of Grace we Press On