“The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results.” (James 5:16b) The Living Bible)
After being a road runner for over 35 years, an accomplishment that takes determination, dedication, and discipline; after competing in the Indy 600 Mini-Marathon for twenty years; after running the full distance in the Chicago Marathon, after running in countless shorter distance races (6.2 miles each), after finishing 200 races total, this friend of mine of many years, started to lose balance, trip, and fall. You know how problems come out of nowhere. Thank God we have a Problem Solver.
Back to the story. It became necessary for my friend to use a cane, and eventually a rollator, and then it evolved to where using an electric scooter was needed to get around. Brain surgery was required. But wait, that’s not the end of the story.
This is his story, his time of testing, but others were involved. Many continued to pray for him. Prayer works! Prayer moves God to show up and change things. Prayer changes things, even if it changes you in the midst of your circumstance. Amen!
Know that God will take you through your tests in one way or the other and give you a testimony; a testimony that says, “God is still in the miracle working business.” As a result of your testing time, He will give you a testimony that says. “God is still intervening in the normal course of events in the lives of men, women, boys and girls.”
Let me get back to the fact that prayer works by sharing a hallelujah moment. The physicians may have not been optimistic. The rehab folks might had had their doubts that it would all work out, perhaps for a minute. Friends might have given up hope, not seeing God was in it! But listen! There is a Great Physician! Listen to me! There is one who can still work it out for good, no matter whatever it is that tries to hold us down or stop our mouths from giving Him praise. Are you still listening? There is a Friend who will stick closer to you then a brother! I know we are not in church, but can I get a witness?
My friend got out of the hospital. He was not on a cane, not on crutches, not sitting in a current model rollator, not carefully being wheeled out by medical staff, and there was no need for an electric scooter. My friend walked out of the hospital! Praise God! My friend walked out of the hospital! It was not a chief surgeon that worked through the surgeons and nurses. It was God who, as my friend I am writing about said, it was God behind the miracle. Yes, it was a God-given miracle.
Miracles big and small, noticeable and unseen, they are still being done by our God today, done by One who hears the prayers of the righteous, and done by One who, as you all like to say, shows up and shows out. Shout about the big miracles, but shout about the small miracles too! In case you don’t think God has intervened in your life, just know it was Him, that let you drive down the street safely! It was Him who watched over you and kept that driver who was not paying attention to where they were going from hitting you! It was the Lord who intervened in your life in such a way that whatever your physical condition was or is, He made you a new creature and you are no longer the same! Praise God for what He did in the life of my friend! Praise God for how He has intervened in your life! Praise Him for the divine intervention in your future in advance! And while you may never compete in a marathon or any athletic race, remember, you must keep running the Christian race! P.S. My friend is running the same race! Be blessed!
“Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1 NASB)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King