Prayer

With my theme for the year being prayer, it’s on my mind a lot, and I have a feeling my blog posts may center around this often this year. Here is something that happened this past week.

My friend called me one afternoon asking me to pray for her 6-month old niece who was being diagnosed with a serious form of cancer on her hand called a sarcoma. Her parents were being told that an amputation might be necessary, but it could be worse. They were waiting to do the biopsy which would help them know how best to treat it. There was hope that possibly chemotherapy would be effective.

We joined them in praying. As I was running errands that same evening, I was praying aloud, hoping to be focused in prayer for them. As I prayed for many things surrounding these circumstances, there was a passage of Scripture that came to my mind clearly. Psalm 18. This was the only one that came to mind during the prayer, but was very clear. I was thinking of the early verses knowing God is our Rock.

When I pulled into the Chick-fil-a drive through (a far too common experience for me, I might add!), I looked at the car in front of me, and they had on their license plate “Psalm 18:6.” I felt for sure the Lord was speaking through this.

That portion of Scripture is about death encompassing David, but he cries out to the Lord and is heard and delivered. Now I didn’t know what to make exactly of it, but loved the reminder that in crying out to God, He hears.

Later that week, I got a call from my friend. She said they had just learned that the biopsy had shown it was not cancer! Rather, it was something very rare that the doctor had only seen one other time in 35 years — it was an aneurysm in her hand which would completely heal!

Who knows God’s ways, whether He healed her or gave another diagnosis because of the many prayers for her — or whether it was this way all along and He wanted those involved to walk through it for good and glorious purposes (or both or more?!). But what I do know is that He heard the cries of His children. I do know that through prayer, I got a window into His heart and saw the story differently than had I simply received a call to pray, said a brief prayer, carried on, and then heard she was fine. Praying opened my eyes to see God at work and to trust Him more.

I am encouraged to keep bringing my requests before Him. I know He doesn’t always answer each situation the same way, but He does seem to speak and lead in the midst of them. And that is a mercy, a grace, a peace, a comfort. God — living, breathing, caring, loving, involved!

Part of prayer includes praise, and that is what I want to do tonight — praise Him!