The Power of Prayer

7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7.7

If you google the title of this post, you will find several blogs and articles with the same title. Could it be a coincidence? Are people less creative nowadays?  The need to share God’s work is growing, therefore, people use this title to tell the reader that that is what they are going to talk about: God’s work through prayer.

 In Matthew 7. 7/8  7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. The word of God tells us to pray and we will get what we ask for. You can be sure that God is listening and answering each and every prayer. The answers are always for our best. Even though sometimes the answer might be no. God gives you what is best for you. His plans are greater than ours. We weep when a relationship is over, we think that we are being punished for something, but God is good all the time. Like a true parent he tells us what is good for us and takes away what is bad. Although we are not aware of this.

My prayers are answered. I know that sometimes I get upset and do not understand what God’s plans are. In the end, I think it is ok because I am not God. If I were, then I would understand the reason why people die, why little children suffer in broken homes, why the disease of the century is cancer, why there is poverty, why there is suffering, and so on.

One thing I have learned throughout these years is that my prayers are answered. I always pray “Thy will be done” . Thy is God not me, therefore, when something happens it is part of His plans and not mine.

The readers here have followed the last few years of my dad. I have written some stories about his disease and his passing (I am grateful for all those who have read them). Every day I prayed for my dad not to suffer and that God would do what was best for my dad and not for me. I truly believe that the best for my dad was to pass away and go back into God’s arms. Some of you might think: this is crazy, who wants their loved ones to die? I did not want my dad to die; I just wanted what was best for him. And to see him suffer was way too painful.

Speaking of dad, I spent most of my time taking care of him and making sure he had a comfortable life until his passing. However, I have my own health issues that I need to deal with. Nonetheless, to take care of dad was a pleasure so my health issues were set aside into a pause mode, which I call grace; God’s grace, giving me the energy and the power to dedicate my life to that man who gave up so much for me: my dad. Nonetheless, deep down inside I knew that my health issues would catch up with me eventually when I had no one to care for anymore. It took a while but it has finally hit me.

I have been feeling under the weather and in great pain since Saturday. My doctors always ask me to grade the pain from 0 to 10, which sometimes I find silly because some people can stand pain greater than others so my 3 is for sure different from others. Anyhow, yesterday I went to the hospital and when asked to grade my pain I said 12. Mind you, I can tolerate pain, when you see me smiling and going on with my daily routine, I am in pain. I feel pain 24/7 but as I said, I can tolerate pain through grace. The nurse laughed at my answer but the doctor was worried, therefore, we decided to use a strong pain killer. Pain subsided and I went home; lab tests were clear, therefore it was my mysterious bone marrow disease acting up (a long story that has been mentioned in former posts).

Later on during the day, the grade 12 pain returned with all its fury. Let’s hit it with morphine, said my neurologist through the phone. Sadness hits you and all the side effects that the drug can cause come to mind, but the body is throbbing in pain and you think `what the heck, just take it.`

Before this though, a friend came over and after a long talk we prayed. We prayed for help. We did not pray for a cure because I have been cured and this I know. How do I know? Because God does not do things badly done; He does them perfectly. Meaning that even though I am in pain all the time, I can walk and my body works despite the fact that my doctors do not know how. According to medical books, I was not supposed to walk again. Once again, prayer, thy will be done. In short, I woke up feeling less pain and was able to get a good night’s sleep and even had a great dream ( I will write about it in another post).

So, to conclude, pray. It is simple. You can pray anywhere and anytime. Believe in your prayer and be grateful for the answer that you get. Remember, whatever the answer may be, it is for your best.

(Written: March 22,2017 )

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