The Power Of Prayer Series

When I was in the midst of my problems this week, I told lots of people, but I also asked that they pray. I told my friends, I told my family, I told the church on Wednesday, and I know that many prayed for me. We need to rely more on the power of prayer in our lives, and we need to realize that our prayers help others in their time of need and pain.

Several years ago a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child. She took the boy’s name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the line, "We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework so he doesn’t fall behind the others." It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got outside the boy’s room that she realized it was located in the hospital’s burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain. She felt that she couldn’t just turn and walk out, so she awkwardly stammered, "I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs." The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" Before she could finish a profusion of apologies, the nurse interrupted her: "You don’t understand. We’ve been very worried about him, but ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment--.It’s as though he’s decided to live." The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw that teacher. It all changed when he came to a simple realization. With joyful tears he expressed it this way: "They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?"

I have no idea where you are today, what pains and hurts you have experienced in your life. But I know this—there is hope for those who hurt. We often look in all the wrong places, but when we focus on those three aspects—turning first to God, turning to other believers, and relying on the power of prayer, you can be assured, as Paul was, that God will take care of your hurts.