The Power of Prayer
by adustyframe ~ June 13th, 2008This afternoon, James and I went to the Y. I need to get back in my exercise routine and the treadmill was calling me.
I lifted some weights and got on the treadmill. I started reading a book about worship by Dr. David Jeremiah. (It’s very good by the way.) I walked on the treadmill for about 5 minutes and thought, “I should pray for Lee.”
He met with his parole officer after work. This week we had some crazy mix ups with her and she neglected to tell Lee about something that he had to take care of. We only found out about it because I called her. Otherwise there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Taking care of it was a quick matter because he had done nothing wrong. I do wonder how in the world was Lee supposed to take care of it if he didn’t know?
At this meeting today, he planned to ask her for more free time on the weekends since he’s working so much. He also was going to ask her if he could have a night away later this month so that he and I can have a little get away.
Back to the treadmill–I put the book down at 4:10 and prayed until 4:30.
I prayed for the following:
1. That Lee would have wisdom to know what to say or not say.
2. That his parole officer by some miracle would be kind to Lee and listen to his requests.
3. That she would give him more free time on the weekends.
4. That she would let him have a night away with me. Although I didn’t pray in faith on this one. I felt like there was no probability for that.
When I called him tonight, he said she was like a completely different woman today. She looked at his schedule and said, “Whoa! You need more time on the weekends.” Before he even asked, she added more hours to his free time on Saturdays.
She looked over his school work and commented on how much work he has done. She complimented his new resume. She said she will probably approve a night out of the facility for a get away, he has to provide some documentation for her to decide though.
He said she was a nice as pie the whole appointment. He had been very frustrated about the incident earlier this week and was nervous about this appointment.
I asked him when was he in her office. He said from 4:10 to 4:30. I told him that was exactly when I was praying and I told him what I prayed for.
I have repeatedly seen God answer prayer in amazing ways, but it never ceases to amaze me how God works and how he can answer prayers so quickly and exactly. He doesn’t always choose to, I understand that and my story is living proof of that. But when he does it’s amazing.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:39 am
amazing Lord! that’s so great! i hope she does approve your get away night.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:42 am
That is amazing! What a testimony to prayer!
June 14th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
That is so amazing – isn’t our God good? Hope your night out works out!
June 14th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
That really is amazing! I will pray that she approves his night away!
June 15th, 2008 at 8:46 am
That is so fabulous! I’ll say a special prayer for your night out.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
How thrilling. And how gracious of God to give us these encouragements and reminders that He does hear and answer our prayers. Thank you so much for sharing- I think we all need to hear of these great things.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:33 am
I have goosebumps!
June 24th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Thank you for sharing this experience! I found your blog while searching for the crockpot recipe I wanted to make last night, and it’s been a real pleasure reading it.
This story in particular struck me because I often struggle with the idea of asking for things when I pray. I am not a Christian, but I am in several 12-step programs where I explore my own spiritual path and my relationship with my higher power – which is clearly the same one you have, although we have different names for them. It’s been delightful and surprising to me to see how nearly identical our approach is as I read your entries, even though as far as I know our contexts are quite different.
The 11th step talks about “praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out” (or “higher power’s will” depending on which program and who is writing it). I always want to take this as not just one step in the process, but as some kind of order from on high for how we are always supposed to pray. And yet, I keep having stories like yours placed in front of my eyes, and getting glimpses of the idea that maybe my higher power wants to hear what I want, that we work together in my life, that part of this spiritual process is learning that it is okay to ask for what I want.
I think that part of my problem is that I take a sort of childlike “magical thinking” approach to it, on one level: as if I could ask for the wrong thing and get punished, and therefore it’s better not to “be a good girl” and not ask for anything at all. Which, really, is a way to try to use my spiritual path to validate dysfunctional ideas from my childhood, instead of to get me closer to my higher power. Hm. Well, I look forward to learning more as I keep working on this stuff!