Hope for Your Heart: Finding Strength in Life's Storms (19 page)

It is easy to spot people who have recently fallen in love. They exude uncommon joy and energy.

Think back to when it first happened to you. Maybe you couldn’t stop humming contentedly to yourself or were prone to giggling out loud for no apparent reason. You were suddenly less irritable and more forgiving. The world radiated a soft, warm glow you’d never noticed before. The sky was bluer, the moon was fuller, and life was sweeter than ever.

As William Shakespeare once wisely wrote of being in love, “It adds a precious seeing to the eye.”
¹

How many stories, songs, and poems have detailed this mysterious alchemy of romance? Too many to remember! Yet few manage to trace the electrifying energy we feel to its truest source and give it a proper name.

I think lovers can light up a room mostly because they possess something that is rare and priceless in a dark and lonely world—
new
hope
. . . being wanted, accepted, and no longer alone—in the present, anticipating sharing a life, raising a family, and growing old together in the future.

One way new lovers express and confirm this hope is by
talking
and listening
until their voices nearly give out and their ears nearly fall off! They pour out their deepest dreams and most frightening fears. Their words are like wires carrying the current of love and hope back and forth between them.

Many new believers in Christ possess the same sort of giddy exuberance. I remember when I entered into a life-changing relationship with Jesus. The Word of God came alive, the songs of praise blessed me, the discovery of His infinite love and grace gave me long-awaited
hope
!

In addition, I
prayed
not out of obligation but because I couldn’t help it. I had a Companion, a Champion, a Guide to navigate me through the stormy gales that consistently swept through our home.

Having begun to grasp, though tentatively, that I was truly loved, forgiven, and no longer alone, my newfound hope became a mainstay for my life . . . my peace in the middle of the storm.

Yet for most people, the fire of new love eventually cools. Routine and familiarity gradually replace intimacy and excitement. It is natural for relationships to mellow with age, but some become imperiled by the subtle distancing that sets in.

When this happens, it’s easy for heart-to-heart talking to dwindle. As communication breaks down, so does hope that the relationship can deliver what people once believed it could for a lifetime.

Likewise, for some Christians prayer slowly becomes synonymous with duty and discipline . . . having to rise early, getting sore knees, and whipping up fervor we don’t always feel. Most come to believe prayer is the province of extraordinary saints and mystics: Elijah fed by ravens, John the Baptist and his life of solitude in the desert, and even Jesus alone in the wilderness for forty days. It is yet another obligation we must try, and frequently fail, to fit into our brutally busy lives.

Often when our sense of hope is under siege and the intimate nearness to God we once enjoyed seems like an irretrievable memory, the reason is remarkably simple: We’ve stopped talking to Him. Naturally our enemy eagerly exploits this rift in our relationship. Samuel Chadwick put it this way:

The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
²

Why? Because consistent conversation with God renews the exquisite experience of having an intimate love relationship—the bursting, aching sense of being fully alive and complete.

Perhaps this is what the apostle Paul was getting at when he said, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
³

Clearly, God intends for our communication with Him to be filled with enthusiasm, anticipation, and delight. The Creator of the universe, our Father in heaven, longs to have intimate conversations with us and to develop the closest possible relationship.

Let the magnitude of that fact sink in for a moment. If that doesn’t inspire you to hope, then I fear nothing will.

We have assurance from God’s Word that our prayers are heard by our heavenly Father and acted on according to His will. That should be enough to convince us that prayer is
always
the wise and reassuring strategy for all of our troubles, large or small.

But here’s more good news: Several credible research studies by physicians and scientists have demonstrated a direct correlation between prayer and healing. Researchers have designed studies using accepted academic standards and protocols to prove what the Bible has said for centuries: Prayer is effective.

One of the earliest such studies was conducted by Dr. Randolph Byrd, a cardiologist and former University of California professor.
⁴
For ten months Dr. Byrd evaluated 393 patients who were admitted to the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital.

A computer randomly assigned each patient to one of two groups. The first group had 192 patients that would receive prayer. The second group had 201 patients that would
not
receive prayer.

To meet the most rigid criteria for clinical medical experiments, this was a randomized, double-blind study in which the patients did not know to which group they had been assigned; neither did their attending physicians or their nurses. Likewise, those enlisted to pray did not know any of the patients personally. Instead home prayer groups throughout the United States were recruited from the Christian faith, and each was given the patients’ names and physical conditions.

Although no instructions were given on how to pray, every person in the group was asked to pray daily for numerous patients. Ultimately five to seven people prayed regularly for each patient.

What were the results? The statistics were staggering. Among other findings, those who received prayer on a regular basis:

• Were more than five times less likely to require antibiotics. (Just three of the prayed-for patients needed antibiotics, in contrast to seventeen of those not prayed for.)
  
• Were less than half as likely to suffer congestive heart failure. (Only eight of the prayed-for patients were diagnosed with congestive heart failure, compared to twenty of those not prayed for.)
  
• Were more than four times less likely to suffer cardiopulmonary arrest. (This affected three of the prayed-for patients, compared to fourteen of the patients not prayed for.)
  
• Were more than four times less likely to contract pneumonia. (Just three of the prayed-for patients were diagnosed with pneumonia, in contrast to thirteen of the patients not prayed for.)
  
• Were almost three times less likely to undergo major surgery before discharge. (Only five of the prayed-for patients underwent major surgery, in contrast to fourteen of the patients not prayed for.)
  
• Were twelve times less likely to need an artificial airway attached to a mechanical ventilator. (None of the prayed-for patients required intubation, in contrast to twelve of the patients not prayed for.)
  

Additionally Dr. Byrd found that the prayers of those living hundreds or thousands of miles away from San Francisco were no less effective than the prayers of those praying in the Bay area. Thus distance was not a factor—dedicated prayer was.
⁵

The evidence provided by Dr. Byrd’s study and similar studies also mirrors our personal experiences with answered prayers. Sometimes our requests are not granted in the way we would like. As a matter of fact, in certain categories of this double-blind study the results showed no appreciable difference between the two groups.

This affirms that prayer holds no absolute guarantee that the request will be granted. Indeed, the apostle Paul prayed three times for the “thorn” in his flesh to be removed, but it wasn’t.
⁶

Then there’s Jesus. Just after the Last Supper, the Lord went with His disciples to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing He would soon be arrested and put on trial. The prospect of His imminent crucifixion was excruciating.

He told Peter and the others, “‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.’ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt. 26:38–39 esv). We know, of course, that Jesus’ petition was not granted . . . he was indeed crucified.

If those two central figures in the New Testament—the apostle Paul and the Son of God—made specific requests to God the Father that were not granted, you can be assured we will also have requests that are not granted. In spite of this, the Bible says you are to “present your requests to God.”
⁷

Additionally we are told to be Christlike. How did Jesus pray? What was the last key phrase in His prayer? “. . . nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus made His request and then placed Himself in the hands of His sovereign, all-knowing Father. He expressed His own will and then surrendered His own will, putting the Father’s will above His own.

Our hope can be tested when the storms of life sweep over us, and we wonder,
Can this really be
God’s will?
I generally use three words in an attempt to describe the “will of God”—
perfect
,
permissive
, and
prevailing
. When we understand the different aspects of God’s will, we too can know that His plans for us are always superior to our own.

God’s perfect will.
God has an ideal plan that is always pleasing and good. An example is that God desires for everyone to repent of sin, accept Christ as Savior, and spend eternity in heaven. Paul wrote, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2).

God’s permissive will.
God permits each person to exercise free will . . . even in opposition to His perfect will. God created people not as robots who have no ability to choose but as humans with the ability to choose independently of God.

For example, God’s permissive will is that everyone has the option of choosing right or wrong, spiritual life or spiritual death, blessing or cursing. As Scripture says, “. . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).

God’s prevailing will.
God’s plans cannot be thwarted, and His ultimate purposes are achieved because He is sovereign. This means, for instance, that God’s prevailing will is to grant full forgiveness and a home in heaven to all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Prov. 19:21).

God indeed has His perfect will. However, He also gives people free will by allowing each of us to go against His perfect will. But the good news is, the hope you are given by God is not based on other people or circumstances, on what is chosen or not chosen.

God gives His people certain hope, which means that regardless of the choices other people make and regardless of the severity of the storms in your life, if you choose to do His will, He will work out His prevailing purposes for you and will ultimately give you peace that passes all understanding.

I personally know the disappointment, confusion, and heartache that can come from wondering why God’s will sometimes doesn’t align with our own will. I vividly recall the fall day in 1998 when I learned my beloved mother had terminal cancer. Oh, how we prayed for healing! But just a few months later, by Thanksgiving, Mother was in the hospital, with eyes that would not open. She had to be fed by family members and medical staff. Moreover, she was on so much medication that she couldn’t communicate with anyone.

Around that time I felt a strong sense of urgency to ask the cancer specialist to take my mother off the high doses of medications she was taking. He responded that she would rapidly decline and we would lose her within weeks. I earnestly sought the Lord’s leading and continued to feel prompted by Him to take this course of action.

Finally, the physician agreed to eliminate the medications and then incrementally reintroduce them. Just a day or two later I gathered with four others around Mother’s bedside, praying. I could hear my brother, Ray, talking to the doctor out in the hallway.

A split second after the two entered the room, Mother sat up and called out, “Well, well, well . . . it’s been so long!” She was as bright and perky as ever. To me it was confirmation that my prayers and petitions for God’s leading had been answered.

And there would be further confirmation. My mother lived lucidly and alertly for several more months. That extra time with her was precious, and she continued to be a testimony for the Lord until the day she finally went to be with Him.

My point is this: It was not God’s will that Mother be healed of cancer. The Lord did not grant that specific request made by the countless people who interceded on her behalf, myself included. I don’t know why, and, honestly, I was heavyhearted because of it.

But God did answer other prayers along the way, like the one mentioned above. And I rest in the assurance that God’s will was indeed accomplished, for my every prayer included the phrase that Jesus uttered: “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” When we pray with this attitude and perspective, we will know beyond a doubt that we are right in the center of God’s will.