A woman in a Christian small group told me this story not long ago. Her family doctor had advised her to see a specialist as soon as possible about a medical problem she had. However, the specialist that her doctor recommended was overbooked at the moment, and also he normally didn’t accept new patients.
The woman said, “I left messages on the specialist’s voice mail for a week. But he wouldn’t return my calls. I was in pain and needed some relief.”
Then one day, while she was sitting on the side of her bed wondering what to do, the woman felt an urge to open her Bible. She did, and her eyes came to rest on Mark 10:51. In that verse, Jesus asks a blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The woman thought about this a moment, and decided to “answer” Jesus’s question with a prayer. So she prayed, “Jesus, I want you to get me an appointment with this specialist.” She glanced at her clock and it was 1:46 pm in the afternoon. Then she laid back on her bed and fell asleep.
Suddenly, the ringing of the phone beside her bed awakened her. Her clock showed 2:07 pm. She had been asleep for 21 minutes. She described what happened next. “I answered the phone,” she said, “and it was the specialist’s office. The nurse said that they had already arranged an appointment for me for early the next morning, and that they had also arranged a medical procedure for me the day after that. I didn’t have to say a word. Everything had been arranged while I slept.”
The woman kept the appointment with the specialist, the medical procedure was successful, and she had a full and rapid recovery. But, this woman’s story raises an interesting question: Do we sometimes fail to ask God for precisely what we need? Would more of our prayers be answered if we prayed with more specifics? Let’s think about that. Do you always remember to pray in exact detail about what you need?
All Domestic and International Rights Reserved.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.