Heart Hope by Olga

While discussing a question in Bible study one week on the topic of pride, the comment was made that doctors often excuse miracles, by saying that someone was “lucky” or perhaps even taking credit for the miracle themselves. One of the quiet, yet tremendously wise women in our group humbly said that there are some doctors who don’t think they are responsible for the patients healing, but instead pray with and for them.  This same lady had previously revealed to me that when her husband was a young doctor the two of them had discussed whether or not he should pray with his patients before each surgical procedure. Together they recognized that this would be a great witness and a good practice, so over the years he has continued doing so. As a prominent physician originally in Houston and currently in Vail at The Steadman Clinic, a world renowned orthopedic clinic, it might have been easy to set aside the prayer time, thinking he was too busy or he was too important or any number ...

It was one of those evenings when the grandkids had been up too late and got beyond the point of no return. It was a team effort to get them to bed. Will had his bath and was in his jammies, so we went to lie in his bed to get him settled down. I thought that the best thing to do was have him close his eyes and pray. Since I knew it would take a while to get him quieted I began to pray through his body. I started with his head and prayed that God would give him a good mind that he would learn about God and desire to know Him early in life. I prayed for his eyes, that he would be able to see the needs of people in the world and that he would see as God sees. I requested that God would use his mouth to speak forth truth and use kind words. I prayed for his ears that God would help him to listen carefully to His words and learn what the Bible says. I prayed for his heart that God would help him to love other people and show them kind actions. His hands were blessed to be used for gentle...

It’s moving day in Houston. The Murphys are moving into a new neighborhood and I have been here to assist with the packing. This is a bittersweet move for the family. They have great friends and neighbors that they hate to be leaving behind, but will be moving into an area that has an outstanding public school where Will and Molly will be going in the future.    As we pack the boxes, the memories abound, so we smile as we look at the mementos from this special place. We laugh as we think of the fun recollections in this home from births to parties and even the aftermath of a hurricane.   And we get a little teary eyed ….. Yes, if a house could talk, this one would have some great stories from the past four years. We cannot know what the future will be for this home, but we will try to leave it filled with all of the blessings possible. We walk through the house, into each and every room and we pray for the family who will be moving in. The living room is first and we ...

Don’t you just love it when you have Divine Appointments? Last weekend, I had several of them while attending Women of Faith and they all revolved around prayer. The first was at the dinner table, when a friend asked for us to pray for a situation with a house that she and her husband were hoping to purchase. Three of us stopped right then and there, held hands and prayed for her situation. The next morning before going into the conference, I was concerned about a medical issue with my daughter and another friend expressed concern about her son, so into the “family-friendly bathroom” we ducked to pray for each other. Later in the day while sitting on the green grass, with the bright blue sky above us eating a picnic lunch, my precious sisters in Christ suggested that we pray for my daughter’s health, so we stood, linked arms and I was bathed by their prayers. The last encounter happened during one of the afternoon sessions. While standing at the back of the room I turned to see a...

Luann Prater has had a ministry with teen girls for several years and as so often happens at that time of life, some of the girls had become a bit skeptical about the power of prayer. One of the girls was particularly belligerent about the subject, so Luann knew that she had to do something drastic to show the girls that they were wrong regarding their doubts. Luann prayed and God gave her an idea. Since it was around Christmas, she had each of the girls purchase a cool gift for another teenager, wrap it up and meet back the next week. Upon their arrival the following week, Luann gathered them for prayer and then gave the girls their instructions—get in the car, pray and tell her where to go in order to deliver the presents. So the adventure began with the girls bowing their heads in silent prayer and then in unison shouting out, “Turn left” and left they turned. Back to prayer they went and then another shout, “Turn right” and on and on that went for about 20 minutes when they finall...