Why Do You Pray?

We had an interesting thing happen yesterday (Sunday) at our church. One of our brother-members has been in the hospital for the past week or so, with one unexpected problem after another. He went in initially for surgery on his esophagus, but had at least three more unexpected surgeries, ending with one that removed some of his colon and small intestine due to a diverticulum which ruptured. On Sunday morning, when they were about to go in for the fourth time in a week, he was on total life support and the doctor gave him virtually no chance at survival.
They did that surgery on Sunday when the church was meeting. We stopped the service and had a special prayer for him, as they were working on him at the hospital. The prayer was sincere, humbling, and honest. There was no doubt in the one leading the prayer that God could intervene, and he conveyed that hope to the rest of us in good fashion.
We found out on Sunday evening that not only had he survived the surgery, but he came through it so well and looked so good that the doctor now is saying he has a chance to go home and live a normal life. The doctor is also quoted as saying that it shouldn’t be this way…that he should not even be alive; yet they are now talking about possibly going home and living rather normally.
They have one more surgery to do. That is tomorrow (Tuesday). If he comes through this one as he did the one on Sunday, they will sew him up, put him back in ICU, and work to get him out of the hospital and on the long road to recovery.
I remember thinking during the prayer Sunday morning, unlike many times when I’ve participated in such prayers, that God indeed can and does intervene in these kinds of things, and that the prayers of His people do matter. Oh, I know He doesn’t always do what we ask, but does that make God any less of a prayer-answerer?
When you pray for someone, whether for healing, for comfort, wisdom, or whatever, what do you think of? Are you going through the motions? Are you doing your duty? Or are you petitioning the God of the universe to intervene in a situation because you are asking Him to do so, believing that He can and does work in His creation?