The Power of Simple Prayers: A Personal Journey
When I was about 7 years old, I lived about five miles outside of a small town with my mom. It had one post office, one gas station, an elementary school, and a small meat market. There were no sidewalks, traffic lights, or streetlights. We did not even have a police station or cell phone towers. There were several churches. In addition, a train track went beside the town. My dad was a long-haul truck driver; so, he was always gone. Thus, it was normally just my mom and me. Every Sunday my mom and I would go to church. In own community, all of the churches had two different services on Sunday. There was one in the morning and one at night. Most people, including us, went to both services.
There is one Sunday night that I will remember for the rest of my life. However, it is not the sermon or the singing that I remember about it. I cannot even remember the songs that we sung that night, but we normally sung “Victory in Jesus”. This particular Sunday night stands out in my mind for a different reason. It is the night I first really started comprehending the power of short prayers. I knew that Jesus heard long thought-out prayers, but I did not really know that he heard and answered short, disorganized prayers that are screamed at him. Until this time, I believed that it was wrong to scream at Jesus and expect him to help. Thankfully, I was wrong. I have since learn, that sometimes it really does not matter how you ask Jesus for help as long as you are sincere with your request. I also started comprehending that Jesus controls many things other than wind and rain. I learned all of this after we left to go home on that Sunday night.
Our drive home started out as it had many other times. All of the other people lived a different direction from our home so we said good-by and was on our way. We had to cross the train tracks to go home. We always tried to get across the tracks before the nightly train came through especially in the fall because it was dark outside and everyone knew that it was only a mother and her child in the car. We came to the tracks and started across. The train had not yet come, but it would be coming soon. The car died on the tracks. It would not start. We are the only ones on that road and it is dark outside. The car refuses to start. My mom gets out and tries to push the car. She is not strong enough and I am no help. This is our only car and we live 5 miles further on a dark lonely country road. There are no pay phones around. If we leave the car, there will be a train wreck. If we stay with the car, the train will kill us. I had heard my mom pray many times before, but never like she did that night. She screams for Jesus’ help with fear in her voice. She tells him that we have just come from church, not a bar. She tells him that the train will be here within the next few minutes. She explains what will happen if the train hit the car. All while trying to calm me down. By this time, I have comprehended that we are in trouble. My idea is to leave the car and walk back to church. My mom knows that this will not work because no one is at the church. My mom then calmly tries again to start the car. The car starts. We quickly got off the tracks. After we get off the tracks, we see the headlight of the train. We then thank Jesus for starting the car and ask him to keep the car going until we get home.
When we finally pull into the driveway, the car dies. We are simple thankful to be home. The people that tried to fix the car could not understand how it started back up and then went all the way to our house before dying again. I knew that it was the answer to a very simple yet very different kind of prayer. The car never started again. It cost more to repair the car than it was worth. It was about a month later before we got another car. At the time, I wondered why my mom just did not ask Jesus to fix the car since the car apparently obeyed him.
About 4 years later, my mom and I were coming home from buying groceries and we heard a loud sound from the car. I did not know what it was, but my mom had a really good idea because the steering wheel no longer worked. I noticed that she could turn the wheel all the way around, but it had no effect on the car. There are still no cell phone towers and whom would we call anyway. My dad was working. So, we prayed. I had already learned that Jesus could control cars and make them work. Jesus answered our prayer. He caused the car to go around all of the curves and make all of the turns between there and the house. Later, a mechanic managed to fix the steering column there in the yard because you could not steer the car.
Now I know that Jesus is there to help, and he answers our prayers. Sometimes he answers them immediately and sometimes it takes a little time. Jesus did not just simple fix the old car, he provided us with a newer better car. He also started teaching me to trust and wait for him and his timing. I saw that when there is no one else to turn to he is always just a prayer away regardless of how you prayed.
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