Have you ever felt discouraged because God doesn’t seem to be answering your prayers?
Pastor Mark Batterson has. He was diagnosed with asthma at age 3 and suffered life-threatening attacks for years. At age thirteen, he was rushed to the hospital and spent days in intensive care. Both he and his parents feared that he might soon take his last breath.
For 40 years, Mark never went anywhere without his inhaler and used it almost every day. He slept with it under his pillow, and even kept it handy in his sock when he ran or played basketball.
And for 40 years, he prayed for healing … countless times … but he never found relief.
Over that time, Mark struggled to understand how God was working in his life. What he learned is that prayer is the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do.
God doesn’t answer every prayer the way we’d like. Sometimes the reasons for that aren’t made clear to us. Sometimes the reason is because He wants us to pray for the impossible and to step out in faith to see a breakthrough, all the while trusting that His will and timing are always perfect.
For Mark, God’s timing became manifest in July 2016, during a sermon he was preaching about “moving mountains” in prayer. He challenged his congregation to pray boldly for the impossible in their lives. Mark took on the challenge himself. After nearly 40 years of prayer, he publicly asked – one more time – for God to heal his asthma.
And God did!
He didn’t feel anything unusual in the moment, but a day later he realized he hadn’t needed his inhaler. Then a week went by. Then a month. Then a year. Mark has now been symptom-free for over three years.
Today is the National Day of Prayer, and I’d love for you to hear Mark’s story, which he shared with our staff for the National Day of Prayer last year.
Join us for “Praying and Stepping Out in Faith”on yourlocal radio station, online, oniTunes, via Podcast, on our free phone app, or watch the full program on our YouTubechannel. Through Scripture and his personal testimony, Mark shares how we can pray humbly, yet boldly. He serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC.
Whether you’re attending a National Day of Prayer event today or praying on your own, I hope you’ll pray humbly, yet boldly, about Sanctity of Human Life issues here in the United States. Here at Focus on the Family, we are pushing back against the trend to legalize abortion through all 9 months of pregnancy, and we are praying that our legislators will recognize that preborn babies have a right to life.
I also hope we will see many of you at our Alive from New Yorkevent in Times Square the day after tomorrow – Saturday May 4th! And if you can’t attend, please pray for great weather and for all of the details to come together. As we do live, 4D ultrasounds on big screens, pray that those images of precious babies will start a tidal wave of pro-life support! And pray that those who have been “on the fence” on this issue will be galvanized to defend life.
Thank you for your prayerful support.
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