Power of Prayer?

For most of my life I had sort of a deist outlook on prayer.  My thoughts were that the outcomes of our daily life were not interfered with by God.  That all things happening good and bad were “in the odds” so to speak.  I used to say that if one thousand people were driving off a cliff praying to God to live, that one of them would be able to break in time and that’s the story we listened to about God answering prayers.

I developed this outlook because I remember praying for things all my life and becoming more and more disappointed that they were not answered.  I did not want to think that God was to blame for this, so I developed a conviction that God does not really answer any prayers.  Then something started to happen, changing my outlook on the topic completely.  As I studied and developed a stronger relationship with God, my prayer structure and context started to change.  I naturally became less interested in praying for myself, and more toward others.

When my son was about seven years old he had gone to the dentist to get a cavity filled.  The dentist drilled too deeply and within a few days the tooth became infected and abscessed.  Once we had determined what happened we made an appointment (to anther dentist) to fix it.  The night before the appointment my son was in great pain.  We had taken him into the doctor, but they only prescribed kids Motrin and Tylenol because of his age.  This was not helping at all.  He had gone to bed, but was waking up every thirty minutes screaming in pain.

I remember about 11 p.m. he woke again, this time screaming and crying uncontrollably.  I ran into his room and picked him up.  I held him rocking back and forth as he wept, and started crying myself.  I started praying as earnestly as I have in my life.  Over and over again I prayed the same thing.

“Lord, please take this pain away from my child.  Please give him peace.”

I remember saying it over and over, my mind fixed on the prayer so deeply that I didn’t realize 30 minutes had passed.  I looked down to see that my son was in a deep sleep in my arms and I was still rocking him.  His shirt soaked from his sweat and my tears, I thanked God and put him back in bed.  He never woke again that night, and the next morning seemed to be in good spirits.  The next day the tooth was taken care of along with his suffering.

I thought about the event for the rest of the week.  Could this have been a coincidence?  Some may argue that, and there may have been some scientific explanation if the event had been monitored in a laboratory.  The point is that I felt this seemingly small prayer request, in scope of the world was answered, and directly.

I now, routinely find prayers to be answered for those I pray for.  If praying for myself, I always preface with “but not my will, your will be done”.  This gives me a peace of mind that God knows what is best for me, though I think sometimes I may.