Prayers Never Die

PRAYERS NEVE DIE...three unrelated stories on the power of persistent prayer.

STORY 1

He hated the way he struggled to provide for his family. The way things had always not been easy and how he worked more than two jobs to put food on the table. 

He sat on a torn leather chair and under the squeaking ceiling fan that needed repairs, but wasn't, because there was no money.

The sweat that dropped from his forehead, they came more as a result of the thinking he had been doing lately than from the heat in his living room...

"God, despite all the prayers of these years," he muttered under his breath. "Despite the months of prayers and fasting, why does it still feel like I'm in square one? When will my big break come?"

He slept off, his mind a jumbled mass of confusion and frustration, trying to place a finger on what he was doing wrong...

Until a credit alert woke him up. And then another. And a message from a contractor he had heard nothing from in months. And mails from two debtors who had run away with huge sums of his money five years ago.

His heartbeat increased, he had to release his tie so he could breathe. What was happening? He was going to open the mails from the first debtor when another message entered his phone. "Congratulations, your family has won the Lagos State lottery for housing." He checked to see if it was a scam, but he remembered all those years of sweat and investments into this housing project, how he had given up hope because they had stopped responding to him. Until he had taken it to God in prayers...

He stood up, too excited to remain seated. But he realized that that was a mistake. His knees buckled under the weight of what God was going, how God seemed to have said "Enough is enough of your suffering"

He collapsed on the floor in tears, but not before muttering in utter surprise; "Prayers never die."

STORY 2 

He was sick. Our bread winner. Our cheerleader. Our backbone. The one who always knew what to do. It broke us to see him lying in bed, his eyes a watery milky pool and his limbs like paper. "Give him one week and he'll be with the Lord," the doctor had said.

We clenched our teeth in fear, but mama tied her scarf and went to the other room.

Groanings, incoherent words, sometimes tears... She was mourning early, we thought.

But fast forward to a month later and Dad was back on his feet. The air of death that hung about him seemed to have suffocated. We saw mama smiling at him with an eerie knowing in her eyes.

"What happened?" 

She laughed and told us, "Prayers never die."

STORY 3

She stared at her result sheet in utter amazement. Red failure screamed at her from the paper she held, tainting her, restricting her airflow, wanting her to collapse on the floor. She had read, prayed, fasted...the exams had even been easy. How come this?

She closed her eyes and inhaled, remembering what mama used to say.

Groanings, incoherent speeches, sometimes tears...she violently refused to accept what was not hers. 

It was weeks until she got feedback. A call came in. "Sandra, you have someone else's results. We just sent you yours. Sorry for the mix-up."

Hurrying from her knees, she checked the message that had just entered her phone. The first letter of the alphabet replicated itself on her screen. 

She smiled, looking up to heaven. "Prayers never die."

Been praying about something?

Prayers never die. 

They fly to God. And they will come back. Bearing answers with them.

Shalom,

Till I come your way again😘