--"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. --Not a result of works, that no one may boast. --For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so --that we would walk in them." --[Ephesians 2: 8 thru 10]
--I've always been so physically healthy that prayer requests about others' pain barely register in my mind. That all changed this summer while my husband and I were in California visiting our daughter.
The day before flying, I shopped for birdseed. That's what I always do--about to leave town. I embark on a massive cleaning project or must have some nonessential household items. Seeing no staff to help me and in a hurry to get home and pack, I pulled a forty-pound big onto my shoulder and lurched to the line at the register.
The next day I woke in agony from my neck to my fingertips. Cervical radiculopathy. The common term, a pinched nerve, understates the torture. During our trip, I couldn't sit comfortably, turn to chat with the girls in the backseat, look up at birds in the wildlife refuge beside our hotel, or sleep.
I watched TV all night, and a painkiller ad kept coming on with an endless list of dire side effects that had previously seemed hilariously.
Now, though, I cried sincere tears for the ad's probably fictional fibromyalgia sufferer. Some people, I abruptly realized, endure this misery constantly! Even now, finally over my pinched nerve, I feel genuine empathy when someone requests prayer for pain. I instantly go to Jesus in prayer for the person.
--"Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being available for us to come to 24 hours a day 7 days a week before your throne of grace. Yes, I speak JESUS! "
