The Effectual Fervent Prayer

“Can you remember a time when someone’s prayers made a difference for you?” our Sunday School teacher asked in class this week. I’m sure there are countless times, but the one that sprang to mind was when I was in the throes of premature labor with our second child many years ago. Anxious and afraid, since the baby wasn’t due for seven more weeks, I was also experiencing a lot of pain. Unfortunately, there was little relief they could give me in interest of the baby’s safety.

It wasn’t exactly a welcome thought that came into my mind when my husband said, “There’s someone here to see you.” But it was our pastor’s wife, a mother herself, who came in, and seeing my distress saying she would only be a moment. Gratefully, I heard her pray a sincere and trusting prayer of faith for my relief and safe delivery. At once I was at peace! The pain was suddenly bearable. A few hours later our daughter, Julie, came into the world with no anesthesia, weighing over five pounds and healthy. I was able to take her home with no extra hospital stay when I was dismissed.

That moment of prayer and the remarkable answer has always stuck with me. “In fact,” I told my Sunday School class, “she was the wife of the pastor whose name is on the cornerstone of this building.” How unreal that we would be back here after living away over forty years! The church at that time had met in a cement block building that still stands across the highway from the present location. After we had moved away, our friend, as founding pastor, had guided the church to build the simple brick structure that now serves as our fellowship hall. A beautiful new sanctuary was added a few years ago and many pastors later.

A circuitous path led my husband to the ministry nearly 25 years ago after a 23-year business career. No longer the young father who shepherded our young family to church back then, as associate pastor Howard now stands in mature age behind this pulpit every Sunday to lead in prayer and to preach on Wednesday nights, a senior statesman of the faith. The Lord gave us four more children, and after that first experience with natural childbirth, I chose it for my next baby! That prayer went a long way!