Will You Pray?

How desperate are you to see God answer your prayers? Would you even ask a stranger to intercede for you, to enter into your burdens?

While seated at the Emory Hospital surgery waiting area in Atlanta, a dear lady approached my wife and me with small sheets of note paper in her hand. With a smile and an outstretched arm, she said, “I overheard your conversation, and I’ve written some prayer needs on these papers. Would join me in prayer?”

Denise and I read through the requests . . . husband, son, grandson, father. Great needs ranging from spiritual to physical. A loved one desperate, burdened, wondering, doubting yet still believing and seeking God to answer.

After processing the needs, Denise went over to have prayer with her. There they entered into the Throne of Grace together (Hebrews 4:16). What a joy to see two strangers, now understanding they are sisters in Christ, joining together at the best place . . . before God!!

This lady is like the woman with an issue of blood who was desperate to get to Jesus (Mark 5:25-34).

“Do not be fooled. Passive prayers hastily tossed out as some second-thought appeasement at those junctures when life’s more pressing duties benevolently grant us a moment of reprieve are nothing of prayer. Real prayer is first realizing the fact that prayer ‘is’ the pressing duty. And second, that real prayer is doggedly pushing everything else aside to deliberately act on that fact.” (Craig Lounsbrough)

What is your burden? Are you desperate in prayer, even pressing through the crowd to ask others, even a stranger, to intercede for your cares?

“Excuse me! Will you pray for . . . ?”