Go Figure

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12, NIV 2011).

I was congratulating one of my patients over his recovery.
He responded, “You know, I owe it more to prayer than anything else. I’m grateful for what you did, of course.” After a slight hesitation he continued, “Did I ever tell you about my sickness as a boy? I had rheumatic fever and was really sick. I was in the bed for over a year. I was vomiting blood and couldn’t stop coughing. One day I heard the doctor in the other room, talking to my mother, ‘I don’t think that boy will be around the next time I come.’ Well, that shook me. Soon after that, Oral Roberts was on the television. I placed my hands on the screen and prayed for healing, just like he told me. I immediately started getting well.”

I never have figured out the power of prayer.
I know that God listens and does great things through our prayers---I just haven’t figured out how He does it or how He makes His decisions about our prayers.
I am surrounded each day by patients who are miracles bathed in prayer and I am surrounded by others who pray the same with no physical healing. I cannot figure it out.
I suspect that’s a good thing.
If I could figure out how to make my prayers work my way, I suspect the angels would laugh at the mess I would make. I am not bright enough. I do not love all enough. It is impossible for me to work out God’s great Love Story from my vantage point, with my intelligence, with my character.
And so I am left to pray in earnest for those I love: not knowing how God will decide, but knowing the God who will decide. He listens; He knows; He cares, He can and “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”

Dear God,
Let me open my heart to you in prayer and trust you for your best plan.
Amen