"God, first, please protect my family from temptation, sin, and evil of any kind. Lead us in all things. And, with evil out of our lives, lead us to seek you and do your work."
As I said, the prayer was simple.
I began the prayer on Monday night. I said it every night. Then, on Friday, I had to take my car into the shop for some minor work. On my way home, I took a short cut, which led me down this 1/2 mile stretch of residential highway.
As I started down this road, my phone drew my attention. I look down to see if I had missed a call or text message. When I looked back up, a car was in my lane. Basically, a car had backed our of a driveway. But, instead of straightening up quickly and getting in their lane, the car was just sitting in my lane. I don't know if it was just waiting for me to drive around it, stop, get off the road completely...I don't know.
Anyway, I looked up just in time to slam on my brakes and stop, nose to nose to this car. For whatever reason, this must have scared the other car because the car turned and pulled back into the driveway it had just came out of a second earlier.
My heart was beating fairly well by now. So, I put my phone in the seat beside me and decided I could wait 10 more minutes until I got home to check the phone any more.
So, I started back down the road. As I sped back up, I entered a curve. Sitting in my lane was another car! It had just backed out of its driveway. Once again, I slammed on the brakes and came to a safe stop quickly, as I had only accelerated to about 20 mph. The car got in its lane and drove on by me.
By now, I am thinking something weird is happening. Two cars in less a tenth of a mile had pulled out into my lane.
Not 1/4 mile down the road, I saw yet another car back out of a driveway and stop in my lane. Three times in less than four minutes! My approach must have paralyzed this driver as she decided to just sit in my lane and not move. I coasted around her and kept going only to have to stop a FOURTH time for a FOURTH car sitting in my LANE. Again, I pulled over and coasted past this car as well.
4 cars in less than a 1/2 mile stretch of road had pulled out in front of me and stopped in my lane.
Now, I my thoughts had quit; I was now in full, straight prayer. "God, just get me home safely."
I did home safely, and as I pulled into my garage, I remembered my prayer that I had prayed every night that week.
"God, first, please protect my family from temptation, sin, and evil of any kind. Lead us in all things. And, with evil out of our lives, lead us to seek you and do your work."
I did not see temptation, sin, or evil in those 4 cars, but I certainly see the first part of the prayer..."God, first, please protect...".
God protected me four times in a row. And, at either one of the incidents, I could have easily collided with someone head on into them. But, God protected.
I am compelled now to share that account because sharing it does two things. First, it gives praise to God. He protected me, and I give all credit of my safety to Him.
Second, it taught me on the obedience to pray. It does not matter if every word comes out right. You don't have to rehearse the prayer ahead of time. God simply wants to hear from you. You are His child. He longs to communicate with you. And, in that, He longs to watch over and protect you, which He did to me this past Friday.
Question: Have you ever had an experience like this one where a prayer came to life and you got to see God answer it? Share if you would.
Brent
I have experienced several prayers that were answered specifically. The first one being when I was 7 years old and my family moved to Richmond, VA. In praying over which house to purchase, my sister and I prayed for the school bus stop to be in front of our house, just like it was in the house we were moving from. We moved to a subdivision in a suburb of Richmond in the summer of '87, so it was not until the start of school in the fall we found out where we would meet the bus at..... come to find out the entire neighborhood was lined up in our driveway on the first day of school, waiting for the bus!
ReplyDeleteI was also directly impacted by one of my father's prayers in which he prayed the verse below:
Matthew 4:24
News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.
I was diagnosed with a simple-partial seizure disorder in the summer of '93, being told by the doctors then the mysterious nauseous sensation I had been experiencing from the time my brain developed enough to hold a memory was actually a seizure. I began a regimen of neurological meds after my diagnosis and rotated on and off every new drug for seizures from that point on (all of you Pirate BSUers became all too familiar with my disorder and the side effects of the drugs!). Due to this disorder, I was not able to keep a driver's license for very long (thanks for trusting me with your car for that volleyball class, Brent!), I missed out on many of the late night memorable moments with the BSU crowd (fatigue would result in a barrage of seizures), and even had to limit what classes I took and concentration for my degree (seizures and TIG/MIG welding in a sculpture class don't mix well!) On a positive note, God kept me out of trouble through this disorder, alcohol and drugs would interfere with my medicine levels, causing more seizures).
Through my teenage years, I learned to live with my seizures and disciplined my self to taking palm fulls of medication 2-3 times a day (depending on the drug of the month). I regularly bummed rides to work, school, and home from friends. My wife and I basically dated over AIM, seeing each other for the occasional BSU Convention or holiday dance. During our first year and a half of marriage, she would drive me to work in the morning before heading to work herself (making her commute twice as long). In 2003, my Neurologist suggested a brain scan that had not been tried previously. At my next appointment I heard these words; "We saw something on the scan and are going to let a Neurosurgeon look at it". In our first two years of marriage, God brought Julie and I through the death of her grandmother, me getting laid off (for our first Christmas!), the struggles of my seizure disorder, not to mention the normal stresses of the first year, and now we're facing major brain surgery.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteWe met with the surgeon who showed us the scar tissue on the front of my right temporal lobe which was interfering with the neurons in that area, causing misfires resulting in seizures. He assured us this procedure would be risky, but not as much as others being that the affected area was on the right side of my brain (the creative side) and not the left side which contains functional controls and memory. He prepared us both for some memory loss, but did not go into detail as to how much.
On Dec. 13, 2003 at 5am, I was rolled into the operating room; giving my wife one last kiss and promising her I wouldn't be long. The last seizure I remembered was two days before (they came in clumps, a few days between). I remember the room looking very sterile, everything seemed some shade of white but for the hands and numbers of the clock on the wall, the clear mask pumping nitrous was placed over my face and then blackness. After 6 hours of surgery, I awoke in the ICU to see my wife looking down at me. My first words? "Hey sexy!"
After 23 years of seizures, 10 years of medicine and my father's prayers, God answered my dad's plea of Matthew 4:24. I went into surgery averaging 40 seizures per month, I awoke never to have another. In December of 2003, I was taking 30 pills per day to control my disorder, on Thanksgiving Day 2004 I took my last pill. I have been seizure free without medication ever since.
Now holding down a solid job, a driver's license, and hanging up my medic-alert tag, I thank God every day for His grace and will pass this testimony on to my children (2 boys and counting?)
Since college at ECU I have always included in my prayers "God, please provide for me the means to be able to live my life for you and do the work you would have me to do." That prayer has been answered multiple times and in many different ways. However one of the ways that God has answered that prayer has really forced me to learn that there are some things I should not be worrying about. He has answered this prayer to meet financial needs many times. I remember 2 times specifically that stand out to me on just how good God is and how he does answer our prayers. Once not too long after I graduated and had just moved to asheville and was living on my own and had only had my first real job for about 9 months, I experienced a month where I just did not know how I was going to pay all my bills. It came to the point where I was deciding which one I could skip a month on. Then one day right before several bills were due I checked the mail and found a check in the mail from the power company I had used in greenville with a refund check in it for the amount - to the penny, of the the current bill I just didnt have the money to pay right then. God answered that prayer. The second time I was in grad school and living paycheck to paycheck and experienced some unexpected medical bills. Due to that I was unsure of how I was going to be able to pay tuition for my final year of grad school. I trusted and prayed and about 2 weeks after the school year had started, right before the deadline to pay the final tuition bill for the semester or be forced to drop out.... I found out that I had received a scholarship/ grant of sorts that would cover my tuition for the year. God provided and answered that prayer. This post really spoke to me as sometimes I forget that even though my prayers are not always answered in the way I am expecting them to be answered, God does always answer prayers and is always there looking out for us.
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