Fellow Guideposts blogger Michelle Medlock Adams is a dear friend, and we always love it when we end up on faculty together at conferences. Yes, folks get two Michelles for the price of one!
We spent this past weekend together at The Cove (the Billy Graham Training Center)—three special days of fellowship, great food and music, and marvelous speakers. And as is always the case when the two of us are in the same room, there was lots of laughter.
We’d already had our goodbye hugs on the last day and then as Michelle and her husband were walking out the door she told him, “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
She walked over to me and said, “Come over here with me.” We walked to a quiet corner and she said, “I feel like I’m supposed to pray for your ears.” And then she placed her hands over my ears and prayed the most precious prayer, asking for healing and for God to stop Satan from causing any additional harm.
I’d shared with her earlier in the weekend about the ear disorder that has taken significant amounts of the hearing in my left ear over the past year and about the eight surgical procedures I’ve had during the past few months (with more to come before the end of the year) as my doctor has tried to stop further hearing loss and the humming in the ear, fatigue and vertigo symptoms that accompany it.
I was so touched by Michelle’s prayer, and after I got home from The Cove, I thought about what an amazing blessing it is to have friends who pray.
I have a group of about 50 people who pray faithfully for me, my writing and my ministry to families. They are truly the wind beneath my wings, and I couldn’t do what I do without them. I’ve rested on their prayers on so many occasions and have seen God accomplish huge things because of those prayers.
It’s a blessing to have those prayers from my friends, but I also receive a huge blessing from the privilege of praying for them. How would we ever make it through life without prayer? I’m so glad I don’t have to experience the answer to that question. Don’t you agree?
Ask God to place five friends on your heart today. Pray for your friends and take time to let them know that you’ve prayed for them. And then take a few minutes to thank God for the oh-so-sweet gift of praying friends.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)
