Reach Out and Touch Someone Through Prayer
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Rom. 12:12, 13, NIV.
One evening in November 1992 a stranger on the phone notified me of an accident. My sister Kay and my mother had been hit head-on by someone driving in the wrong lane. Kay had an almost-severed foot, and my mom had multiple injuries. The prognosis didn't look good.
An hour later I ran into the emergency room to find it full of strangers praying for my mom and sister. Kay was already in surgery, and Mom was ready to be wheeled into the operating room.
At midnight Kay was back in her room, awake from the anesthetic, groggy, but coherent. A few seconds later the telephone rang, and to my astonishment, someone from a prayer circle in California was calling to give us encouragement and comfort. I was amazed.
July 1993 our plane landed in Atlanta, ending a wonderful vacation. As we arrived a message told us that our 16-year-old son, Brett, was in the coronary intensive-care unit at Emory Hospital. We were shocked to learn that when Brett was waterskiing he had experienced severe chest pains. Fearing a torn aorta, they had flown him to Emory for surgery.
Brett's story is full of amazing, unusual, and scary facts. But while we were staying in hotels and at the hospital, people called us from all around the world to tell us they were remembering him in prayer. How the word got out to such places as Canada, Singapore, and England I'll never understand, except to know that there is a special bond between Christians all over the world. A warm, comforting feeling comes from knowing that people are lifting you and your problems to the Lord through prayer.
Recently I learned about 10-year-old Nicky, from Canada, who had fallen from a horse. She was in a coma. As I started a prayer circle for her in Georgia, I was reminded how wonderful prayer is. And there's no long-distance rate. We can reach out and touch someone instantly with prayer, whether they're next door or across the ocean.
Do you know someone who needs healing, comfort, or strength? Prayer is the answer, and it's even cheaper than that highly touted 10-cents-a-minute rate you see advertised on television!
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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