Prayer, Hope and Faith

I have an amazing prayer team...amazing...When I began the journey of writing my book, I felt I was supposed to ask a group of women to join me in prayer.  They have prayed for specific chapters, time to write, prayed for me to have time to pray, prayed for my sanity...Their prayers have lifted me and kept me going.  I asked this group if they could write me a piece for my blog on prayer, and Julie Beard  (working mom of two precious girls and one half of the non-profit, Crawfish 4 Kids...check them out on Facebook) has responded with this incredible and powerful word about prayer in her life.  Be blessed y'all.  Be blessed.

It was summer – Memorial Weekend. I had just turned 20 years old. I was dating a guy who I have no idea now why I was dating other than he liked to have fun and by fun I mean drink A LOT. That weekend, we started drinking in the afternoon and by that night, well,…I can hardly recall anything that happened. What I do remember is fuzzy but from conversations a few days later, I was told that my boyfriend and I got in an argument. So I took my keys and got in my Ford Ranger truck and left. I honestly do not remember arguing, finding my keys or getting in my truck. I do remember one part of my short drive that night. I remember crying hard and this thought went through my head, “Just let go of the wheel.” So…I did. I hit a few bumps and then things went black, complete darkness.



Darkness. That’s one word I use to describe that night. I know now, some 15 years later, that those words that went through my mind at that dark moment in my life…those were not my thoughts. I wasn’t even coherent enough to process things clearly as the doctors would tell my parents later that my blood alcohol level was way beyond the legal limit. So much so, that the doctors had to wait to perform the surgery I needed because my blood was too thin from my alcohol consumption. Those words in my head that night came from a dark place. From, “Your enemy the devil (who) prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”; ironic isn’t it, that the sentence in this verse directly before says, “Be alert and of sober mind” (1 Peter 5:8). It’s hard to be clear-minded when you’re out of your mind drunk. Please do not be mistaken – I take fully responsibility for my poor choices that weekend. The devil clearly saw where he could step in and attack and I made it easy for him. Perhaps this could apply to many of us…we can be far from clear-minded even without a drop of illegal substance in our body, can’t we? Succumbing to the ways of the world always provides the devil with opportunity to slither his way into our thoughts, the words that we speak, or our actions.



Back to my story of being in my truck that night…the next thing I remember is waking up on the passenger side floorboard and when my eyes opened, I tried to get up. My neck was pinned against the passenger door and my body was lying lifeless on the floorboard. I could not move; I was paralyzed. All I could do was blink my eyes. And pray. I have no idea how long I laid there in the darkness unable to move, I do not even remember what I prayed, but I do remember some of my friends that let me leave the party drunk that night opened the door to my truck and stayed there with me until the ambulance arrived. I was life-flighted to a bigger hospital and things were blurry (literally and mentally) until after surgery.

HOPE. Hope is another word I use to describe this event in my life. I had broken several of my neck vertebrae. The doctors had to take bone from my hip and use it to fuse my neck vertebrae back together with two plates – one in the front and one in the back of my neck along with ten screws. The outlook was that I may walk again or I may need a wheelchair, but if I did walk, it would never be normal as I would likely limp. That was the outlook of some very brilliant doctors and it seemed realistic.  Realistic…you cannot be realistic and have faith at the same time.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:9)

 

One afternoon while I was in the hospital, a man and his wife came to visit me. I have since forgotten their names, but I will never forget them. They told my parents and me that they were driving home from a church event Memorial weekend when they saw the ambulance and police at the scene of my accident where I ran off the road and hit a telephone pole. They stopped their car and prayed for me that night. Prayed for me? Two strangers who didn’t even know my name, prayed for me? I was overwhelmed with a sense of peace and comfort and HOPE in that moment.

“I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

This man, he was a pastor of a church somewhere near Shreveport, LA, he left a footprint on my life, as did the prayers of many others who prayed for me. I am reminded of the story of Daniel when he prayed for the people of Israel and an angel named Gabriel came to him. “While I (Daniel) was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight... He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding” (Daniel 9:1-5 & 21-22). God showed up right there in the midst of Daniel’s prayer and just as God showed up for Daniel, I believe, through faith, that God showed up for me too. In the midst of lying helpless and completely surrendered on my floorboard, God heard my prayers and he sent me two angels to pray over me, to open the heaven, and he sent them back again while I was in my hospital bed to give me HOPE!

 

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

 

FAITH. Hope builds Faith. I am not proud to say that it still took me many (too many) years to truly grasp the depths of God’s love for me and how much He was there with me that night in the darkness and throughout that hard time in my life as well as every other day. But thankfully all of God’s promises are true; he never left me, just as he has never left you.

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deuteronomy 31:8).

 

Whatever dark place you may be in or hard time in your life, my hope, and prayer for you is that you are reminded of the power of prayer. That it can open the heaven for you, for a loved one or for a stranger. Prayer casts out the darkness and brings the light of hope and faith.

 

Father in heaven, hollowed be your name. God, I thank you for prayer! Thank you that you are always with us, even in the darkness. Lord, it is my prayer that you would pour out your Spirit of wisdom and revelation over each of us so that we may know you better and so that we may recognize the enemy’s attacks against us. Help us Jesus to always be alert and of sober mind. I pray that you open the eyes of our hearts so that we may know and believe by faith the hope to which you have called us, the riches of your glorious inheritance and your incomparably great power for us who believe. Father give us a burning desire to pray, to call out to you all the time, even in our darkest moments. Press it upon our hearts to draw near to you every day, all day and to never be afraid or discouraged. In Jesus name, Amen.