Prayers For The Hopeless

[The nurse] seemed to hesitate for a moment; then she plunged on. “But seeing your boy the way he is today, this is a miracle. There has to be a God, because this is a miracle.”

—HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, 148

Todd

The words of two women came a few hours apart and were a contrast in extremes. Sonja’s words came first: “I can’t do this anymore!” she said that night when Colton’s doctor told us there was nothing else they could do—right as that snowstorm rolled in, keeping us from transferring him to a bigger hospital.

Just then a friend called to tell us that church members were gathered back in our hometown to pray for Colton. Within sixty minutes, those prayers were answered.

By morning, we had cycled from frantically desperate to completely normal, and Colton was up, smiling and chipper, happily playing with his action figures.

The doctor was astonished, and so were the nurses. One of them, a hospital veteran, pulled me aside and said, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but we were told not to give your family any encouragement. They didn’t think Colton was going to make it. And when they tell us people aren’t going to make it, they don’t.”

That’s when she said Colton’s recovery was a miracle and that it convinced her “there has to be a God.”

She didn’t have all the details worked out in her mind yet, but she was ready to consider that there might be a God. She had the evidence she needed to start the work toward believing.

I was shocked to hear that the nurses had been told not to give us any hope for Colton’s recovery. Of course we still had hope—because we still had prayer, our own and dozens of others.

Those prayers in a hopeless situation were answered. And not only was the hopeless situation resolved, but it might be that the life of someone watching was changed for the better as well.

What do you suppose is going on in the world right now that might seem hopeless, except to those who are pounding on heaven’s doors with their prayers? Let me put it to you in another, more personal way: what do you know is going on in your world right now that seems hopeless?

Maybe you’re not the type who’s able to openly share struggles or pain, or maybe you don’t have people close enough to you who have offered to pray with you when hard times hit. There are far too many people in this world who don’t have anyone to pray with them and for them.

May I pray for you? Go to HIFRMinistries.org and click on “Prayer Request.” My prayer team and I would be glad to knock on heaven’s doors for you.

Who are you praying for? Who’s praying for you?

Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

—Matthew 18:20