In You, O LORD, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness. Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me; for You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. Psalm 31: 1-3, NKJV.
Lord, we linger a little longer on this topic. There might be somebody, who is wrestling with issues of this nature. Please get us over this bump we pray; in Jesus’ name; Amen.
Yesterday we ended on the note of me feeling like a false prophet. Notice where the emphasis is: on me. I dare to say that, whenever there is a problem with the way our prayers are answered, you can almost always be sure that the problem can be traced to us. It was all about how I would appear to my friends! After all, I had boasted about God answering my prayer, and as it turned out, no such prayer had been answered (or had it?); and if that was not bad enough, my condition had grown worse!
I need to make a correction to a statement: that of not being allowed to walk in the corridor – that was only when the babies were out of the nursery, with their mothers. My rising temperature was a major concern to the medical staff. Doctors and nurses were looking for anything that might indicate the cause. It seemed as if the heat was just consuming my body; yet no cause, or cure, could be found. They were making plans to immerse my entire body in ice-cubes. Prior to doing that, they tried applying cold compresses all over my body; but before they were finished, I began to have chills, and was shaking so violently, that they had to remove the cold compresses, and cover me with thick baby blankets.
I remember one night, as I stood looking through the window, waiting for my husband to arrive; I felt a vey strong impression to go and call the pastor who had performed our wedding ceremony. I got up promptly, and hurried to the telephone and dialed. The telephone just kept ringing and no one was answering. As I was about to hang up the receiver (it was one of the old rotary telephones), someone picked up on the other end; it was the pastor! I cannot begin to tell you the joy and relief that I felt when I heard his voice. Very briefly, I told him how sick I was; and asked him to pray for me. He then explained to me, that he almost did not, take the call, because he was on his way to church. He was in the midst of a week of prayer; and was hurrying down the stairs at that very moment, but was impressed to turn back and answer the phone! He assured me that he would take my request to the church, and ask for prayer on my behalf.
That very night, my temperature went down, and stayed down! God had listened to the prayer of His people! I am sure that the doctors were dumbfounded! After keeping me in the hospital a few more days under observation, my husband was able to take my baby and me home! The prayer for my healing had been answered! What made the difference between my praying for healing at the beginning of my illness; and the church praying for my healing at the most crucial moment of my illness? Perhaps I will never know the answer to that question, in this life! Perhaps it was, as Jesus said to His disciples, referring to Lazarus’ death; “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby” (John 11: 4)! Who knows? God knows! And that is what matters! If we live to bring Him glory, then we will be satisfied when our prayers are answered for His glory!