Doug Creamer: Do prayers work?
Published 12:00 am Saturday, November 9, 2019
I had my annual physical this summer with the accompanying blood work. I like to look through the results of blood work and compare this year to previous years. There are some numbers that are close to needing medication and I want to make sure they stay in line. My brother reminded me the other day that we are getting older and that the possibility exists that we might have to start taking some medications.
My doctor told me that one of my numbers had crossed the line. I needed to start taking some medication. He agreed to give me 3 more months before we started the medication. The caveat was that if I observed changes in several areas I would agree to take another test earlier. I agreed.
I asked my family and several friends to pray for me. I prayed for myself numerous times. Besides all the prayers, the symptoms I was supposed to keep track of continued a downward trend. I went online to several medical websites to look for additional symptoms. Why do we ALL do that? Everything was pointing to the need for this medication.
Several weeks ago I decided it was time for the new test and the medication. Before I took the test, I wanted to ask for prayer at church on Sunday. At the end of the service, I went up for prayer. I hate to admit this, especially in writing, but I was not stirred by great faith to ask for prayer. My attitude was, if God heals me, great. If God chooses not to heal me, then I will start the new medicine.
While I was waiting for prayer, I overheard some of the other requests. Some of the people had huge requests which made me feel like, “God, please take care of their requests. Mine, I only have to take a pill and I will be OK.” My turn came and I expressed my desire to those praying and to God. After we prayed I didn’t feel any different. I did decide that I would push the test off for several days to see if I noticed anything different in the symptoms I was observing.
Several days later with no observable changes, I took the new test. The next morning I woke up feeling better than I had in a while and worked most of the day outside. The following day I felt better and again worked outside most of the day. Then that afternoon I received a text from the doctor’s office. I went right away into the patient portal to see when the doctor wanted to see me and start the medicine.
I saw a message from the nurse. I opened it and read, “Everything is fine. The doctor will see you next year.” I read the message several times. The lab results didn’t get posted until later in the evening. I read them in disbelief. My results were better than they had been for the past two years.
My Daddy in heaven had decided to heal me. Please know that I am a strong believer in God’s healing power. I have seen it in my life and in the lives of many family and friends. I know God heals, but in this case, I thought he would just use the medicine to heal me.
I was reminded of something so important. No matter how big or small your problem is, take it to your Heavenly Daddy. Ask Him first and see if He wants to intervene for you. In spite of the fact that my faith was not stirred, my Daddy wanted to display His great love for me.
This is why I want to share this story with you. I want to encourage you to ask God to intervene for you. If we don’t ask, how can we ever expect that He will do anything for us? We do have to understand that sometimes we will end up taking the medicine, but let’s open the door for Him. Daddy loves us more than we can ever understand.
So I want to encourage you again to ask your Heavenly Daddy to intervene in your situation. He loves us so much. God wants to be involved in every detail of your life. He wants to help you with your struggles and doubts. He wants to touch your life and create a testimony to His great love for you. So stir up that mustard seed of faith in your loving Heavenly Daddy and see what happens. I believe there will be many stories just like mine.
Contact Doug at doug@dougcreamer.com