THE JOY AND LABOR IN PRAYING FOR OUR CHILDREN

"HE'D BE IN TROUBLE IF HE DIDN'T."

Leah was seven years old. She was trying to go to sleep but began to cry, saying, “Daddy and Mommy, my tummy hurts!” Laurel and I prayed for her, but the pain intensified, and she cried even harder. Finally, I turned to Laurel and said, “We need to take her to the emergency room.” Still in tears, Leah yelled out, “No! I don’t want to go to the hospital. Pray for me. Jesus will heal me.”

So, Laurel and I laid hands on her stomach, and prayed in Jesus’ name. The pain instantly and completely left. Leah suddenly became very calm and relaxed.

I leaned over and kissed her and said, “Leah, wasn’t that nice of Jesus to touch you and take the pain away?”

She, with eyes half closed and ready now for sleep, peacefully and quietly said, “Yeah, cause if He didn’t, He would be in trouble.” I laughed under my breath and marveled at the simple faith of a child.

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

I remember my daughter Leah holding her two-year old son in her lap He was sick and crying with a high fever and in pain. With eyes red and face wet with tears he cried out to his mother and me, “What’s happening, what’s happening?” The anguish in his little face and voice was heart-wrenching.

Overwhelmed with compassion for the child I laid my hand on his head and prayed for him. The Lord healed him almost instantly as he lay in his mother’s arms. His pain left and he relaxed, now content and well.

His cry made such an impression on me that I have at times imitated him as I have approached God in moments of grief, pain, or perplexity. If my grandson’s cry so deeply touched my heart, I knew that my cry would also in the same way touch the mercy and compassion of our Lord. And so, I have on occasion looked up into the face of Jesus and cried like that child, “What’s happening? What’s happening?”

He does not always let me know what’s happening. But I know He is always there. I take comfort in God’s incomprehensible love for us His children.

A PAINFUL EYE

Leah lives in Charleston about two and a half hours from my home near North Myrtle Beach. Last night she called me around 12:30 AM. She was in tears and agony. She said, “Dad, I need you to pray for me. It is horrible. I must have got something in my eye when I was shopping today. It feels like something under my eyelid scratching my eye. It hurts so bad, I cannot blink. I try to wash it out but it burns so bad I almost scream. Please pray for me.”

We prayed together over the phone, and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to touch her eye and soothe it. After my prayer she said it felt slightly better.

We hung up the phone, and within the next half hour I received this text from her:

“Daddy, I am happy to report I can blink my eyes and I can see. I will not be going to the ER. That sand or grit or whatever was up in the top of my eye about five minutes ago rolled right on out of my eye and watered down my cheek. My eye is well now. I love you so much and thank you as always for your prayers.”

A MIRACLE OF HEALING IN RESPONSE TO HARDLY A PRAYER.

As I was leaving a friend’s house one day, he and I passed his five-year old son playing with some toys on the ground. As we discussed other things the father showed me some sort of bone growth that was on the back of the child’s head. It was just a little smaller than half a ping-pong ball and had been there for years. The doctors had told him it was nothing to worry about. It would not harm the boy but was simply unattractive and inconvenient. My friend and I did not focus on the child but continued our conversation.

However, as I talked with my friend, I very casually laid my hand on the back of the child’s head a couple times saying, “Lord, bless him.” Again, I said, “I know it’s nothing to worry about, but Lord bless him anyway,” as my friend and I went on with the conversation about other things. Then I drove away feeling guilty that I had not taken time to pray an official and “real” prayer over that child. Instead, I had only said, “Lord, bless him” in passing as I talked about other things.

I was surprised a couple days later when my friend called to tell me that the child’s growth had completely disappeared. The Lord had healed it in response to a simple “bless him” prayer.

OUR OLDER "KIDS"

Most of us have found that our adult children send us “to our knees” and motivate us to intercession at a deeper level than when they were little children. Sometimes we pray for them as the Apostle Paul prayed for the church. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” Travail brings babies to birth, and often it takes spiritual travail in prayer and faith to cover them as they seek their way through life.

We must stand in faith and hold to God’s promise to save our children. A few years ago Laurel and I had to deal with an intense situation. I went to the church altar and fell on my face before the Lord. I cried out, “Lord, ever since my children were born, I have asked you to give them hearts to know you. Did those words dissipate into the air and mean nothing? Or should I stand in faith trusting you to work in Your time?” I paused in my praying and picked up a Bible someone had left on the floor at the altar. I casually opened it. I did not turn any pages, but simply looked down at the page in front of me. To my great joy my eyes fell upon these words. “For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” Jeremiah 24:6-7.

That word has been tested. But Laurel and I trust the living and almighty God. We stand on His word and promises. I encourage you, dear reader, to call upon the Lord Jesus and continue in faith. There is a time to weep for our children, but we shall see the fruit of our travail. Hear the words of Jeremiah:

“Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord. And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border (Jeremiah 31:16-17).