I Prayed have prayed
Help us Lord to turn to You in times of pain and suffering. Comfort us and give us rest.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

It is often in the very toughest of times and trials that God brings us to a crisis of faith, and it’s through that experience that God speaks to us and we begin to pray.

The writer C.S. Lewis put it best: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

I experienced such a time in 2009 when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Me – a relatively young guy in excellent health with energy to spare. I never imagined that the word cancer would be attached to my life. And yet it was.

While I made it through surgery without incident, recovery nearly did me in. I was exhausted. I was fearful. I was weak and despondent. I wondered if I would ever get better.

For many months, I prayed to God for healing and for hope. Meanwhile, week after week, I crawled into the pulpit to deliver my weekly sermon, sustained by the prayerful persistence that connected my heart to God’s.

Strangely, during this time of pain and weakness, more than any other point in my life, I became utterly convinced of the power of prayer. Though I was wobbly and wounded, the more I pursued interaction with my heavenly Father, the more divine strength I sensed in my life. The more I knocked on the doors of heaven, the more I found God ready and willing to carry the burden I bore.

Whatever broken conditions you are facing today – in your marriage, your home, your family, through a child who’s wandered away, or the collapse of a career  – it is so often pain that drives us to dependence upon God.

How many times through our pain do we discover our purpose? How many times through our suffering do we discover power? It’s this upside-down dynamic – of going from utter weakness to strength – that the apostle Paul talked about when he wrote, “But [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

I’ve always loved the definition of prayer as “linking our nothingness to God’s almightiness.” When we’re wrestling our way through tragedy or wringing our hands over a cupboard that’s bare, God says, “It is I who can supply what you need. Just come to Me and ask.”

No matter what you are going through today I want to remind you that God is with you. He cares for you. He hears your prayers. And He will see you through it. All you have to do is draw near.

(Read more at  Dr. Jack Graham, Fox News)

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Bre
April 28, 2019

No one likes to go through pain and especially on going pain for years. I know about this because I’m going through it for more years than I would say, But God, He has a lot to say in His word about suffering and He says that if we want to share in the Glory we must be willing to share in the suffering and I call it “ The Cross and the Crown” Everybody wants the Crown but nobody wants the pain of the Cross. Our walk with God as we journey with Him will hopefully teach us that there is a price to pay to identify with Jesus and when we stand before Him on Judgement Day I pray we hear the long awaited words “ Well done thy good and faithful servant enter in to your rewards”

Sylvia Carrion
April 2, 2019

God is our refuge. In trying times. We must hold on to his Awesomeness. God never changes. He is faithful. I am going through a trying time. Was diagnosed with breast cancer. Also pet scan done recently, showed a spot in my left lung and right lung. Now will need treatment. We serve a mighty God that loves us. We have prayer and we ask God to that the blood of Jesus will reconcile us, to divine healing. In Jesus mighty name. Amen. Sylvia Carrion

Martha Robinson
April 2, 2019

Thank you for this powerful testimony. It speaks to me to allow a loving, heavenly Father to release my chains and lay them all at the foot of the cross.

Anna
April 1, 2019

I am really touched by this as I am going through severe pain from calcium deposits in my hip bone.

Merilee DuFrene
April 1, 2019

This is so special for me today….thank you

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