Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it
on a list and said, "I'll pray for them later."? Or has anyone
ever called you and said, "I need you to pray for me, I have this
need."? Read the following story that was sent to me and may it
change the way that you may think about prayer and also the way you pray.
You will be blessed by this one.
A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home
church in Michigan...
While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I
traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for
supplies.
This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the
halfway point.
On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to
collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then
begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in
the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously
injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked
to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping
overnight, and arrived home without incident.
Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I
was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had
known I carried money and medicines. He said, "Some friends and I followed
you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to
kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to
move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed
guards."
At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that
jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however,
and said, "No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My
five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of
those guards that we were afraid and left you alone."
At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped
to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if
he could tell him the exact day that this happened. The missionary
told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this
story:
"On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I
was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt
the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so
strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the
sanctuary to pray for you.
Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?"
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary
wasn't concerned with who they were -- he was too
busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26.