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Pray and Speak Boldly

Two weeks from now it will be a year since I answered one of the most frightening phone calls I have ever received. The police called to report they had found my daughter.  She struggles with opioid addiction and I had not heard from her. I feared the worst.

No parent wants to outlive their child. I am no exception. I answered the phone with my heart clenched tightly.

When the police officer told me that she was in the hospital, all he would disclose was that my daughter, “Didn’t feel good and that her arm hurt.”  My heart began beating again. She’s alive.

When my husband and I arrived at the hospital, the scene that met our eyes was petrifying. Our daughter wasn’t conscious, she was lightly moaning in her sleep. Her skin was covered in bruises and abscesses. Her abdomen, which was flat just a few weeks prior, was filled with fluids to the point of looking full-term pregnant. Her fever was high, and an ever-present sheen of sweat was on her forehead.

 We knew then that the police officer had lied.  To be fair, our daughter didn’t feel good and her arm did hurt. What the officer purposely left out was that she didn’t feel good because she was dying from a bacterial heart infection, and her arm hurt because she had a terrible abscess.  A friend had called an ambulance for our daughter, knowing that her time was running out.

After our initial terror and tears subsided, my husband and I did what the Bible teaches us to do in times of trial.

We responded by calling on fellow believers for prayer, we humbly recognized that God was the creator of our daughter, we requested His protection over her life and waited for the results of that request – knowing that the answer would never change the goodness of God.

In the book of Acts chapter 3, Peter and John perform a miracle in the name of Jesus Christ. A man who has been unable to walk since birth is begging for money at a gate outside a temple.

The man asks for money but instead is given this as an answer.

“Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”   Acts 3:6

This man was over forty years old and could suddenly walk, going from wobbly legs to strong legs. Everyone in town knew this man – there was no denying the miracle. People wanted to know who this Jesus was, and by the time the apostles were done preaching, another 5,000 people believe in Jesus.

The miracle and the preaching are followed by Peter and John getting arrested by the local fun suckers, the Sadducees.  The Sadducees were a group of rich leaders who preached that there was no resurrection of Jesus, no eternal life in heaven. And definitely no such thing as miracles.

I call them fun suckers. Jesus called them a “Wicked and adulterous generation.” Suffice it to say that they were not very nice men.

The Sadducees arrest Peter and John because they performed a miracle in the name of Jesus Christ. They didn’t want the word to get out this Jesus Christ of Nazareth could be counted upon for miracles, or even more importantly, the salvation of people’s souls.

Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit boldly tells the Sadducees to essentially ‘go kick rocks.’

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

The crowds begin to kick up a fuss, defending Peter and John for their non-crime. The Sadducees feared looking bad, so they caved in and released the apostles, but the Sadducees told them to keep quiet and not tell anyone else about Jesus.

Peter and John’s response to their trials showed my husband and me what to do when we were greatly troubled with our own trial.

They responded by calling on fellow believers for prayer.

“On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.”  Acts 4: 23,24

They humbly recognized God as the creator of everything.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.”  Acts 4:24

They made their request.

‘Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”    Acts 4: 29, 30

They waited for the result.

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Acts 4:31

Read that scripture again! An earthquake hit the house. The Holy Spirit filled everyone. They were able to speak boldly about God.

Our results? Two and a half months and twenty surgeries later, our daughter walked out of the hospital on legs that were once strong but now wobbled. She is forever scarred, but so is Jesus. And I am able to speak boldly about God.

Whether our daughter lived or died, God’s goodness was never in question. Only how we would respond. It is our duty as Christians to glorify His name in all circumstances.

Evangelist R.A. Tory said, “The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.”

Dear reader, I hope sharing the prayers spoken in our darkest hour has glorified God and helped you to speak boldly in His name.