I think that to be touched in any way by the Lord has to be the most wonderful and appreciated thing that can happen to a person.
These are stories of those special touches, the kind that stay with you your whole life through.
See the links to the stories on the side panel.
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The Battle With Surrender
When my husband was first diagnosed with cancer (laryngeal), he had to have an emergency tracheotomy. The cancer was blocking his airway when he would lay down. Sitting up, his airway was only as big around as a strand of spaghetti.
Once he got his trach, he just kept getting sicker. We had been told that, as a whole, laryngeal cancers had nearly a 90% cure rate. So we were able, most of the time, to remain upbeat and positive. We found out later (after chemo and radiation was completed) that my husband fell into the 10% group that have what's called a "fixed" or paralyzed larynx. In that group, the survival rate is not as optimistic. It is more like a 20% cure rate and even of those, many have a recurrance of the cancer within the first couple of years.
Anyway, initially we stayed fairly upbeat and positive. But then he became sicker and sicker. He couldn't eat. He couldn't drink. He went from 170 pounds down to 115, nothing but skin and bones. He did nothing but sleep. He could barely walk. I spent much of my time crying. I called my kids and told them I didn't think he was going to make it. I tried to remain positive around him but it was getting extremely hard.
Then, I did something I should have done from the beginning! I went to God and told Him that I was placing my husband in His loving hands! If it was time for my husband to die, I just asked for the strength to deal with it. Up until that point, I had only been praying for healing. I told God that I trusted Him to do what was best and that I knew all things work together for good for those that trust in the Lord. I spent a long time on my knees that day. Some of it praying, some of it just being still, some crying. When I was done, God had filled me with such peace that I knew whatever happened, God was in control and I would be alright.
From that day forward my husband started improving. I'm not saying he didn't still have really bad days. And I also had really bad days. But there was steady improvement! And although he is on permanent disability, he is able to work some now and he has been in remission for 4 and 1/2 years!
I'd like to say that I've learned my lesson and that I now always remember to put EVERYTHING in God's loving hands. I don't. I still foolishly try to pray for what I think is best before something ends up happening to remind me once again that God ALWAYS knows what's best and is ALWAYS in control!
Anne S
Maine
Once he got his trach, he just kept getting sicker. We had been told that, as a whole, laryngeal cancers had nearly a 90% cure rate. So we were able, most of the time, to remain upbeat and positive. We found out later (after chemo and radiation was completed) that my husband fell into the 10% group that have what's called a "fixed" or paralyzed larynx. In that group, the survival rate is not as optimistic. It is more like a 20% cure rate and even of those, many have a recurrance of the cancer within the first couple of years.
Anyway, initially we stayed fairly upbeat and positive. But then he became sicker and sicker. He couldn't eat. He couldn't drink. He went from 170 pounds down to 115, nothing but skin and bones. He did nothing but sleep. He could barely walk. I spent much of my time crying. I called my kids and told them I didn't think he was going to make it. I tried to remain positive around him but it was getting extremely hard.
Then, I did something I should have done from the beginning! I went to God and told Him that I was placing my husband in His loving hands! If it was time for my husband to die, I just asked for the strength to deal with it. Up until that point, I had only been praying for healing. I told God that I trusted Him to do what was best and that I knew all things work together for good for those that trust in the Lord. I spent a long time on my knees that day. Some of it praying, some of it just being still, some crying. When I was done, God had filled me with such peace that I knew whatever happened, God was in control and I would be alright.
From that day forward my husband started improving. I'm not saying he didn't still have really bad days. And I also had really bad days. But there was steady improvement! And although he is on permanent disability, he is able to work some now and he has been in remission for 4 and 1/2 years!
I'd like to say that I've learned my lesson and that I now always remember to put EVERYTHING in God's loving hands. I don't. I still foolishly try to pray for what I think is best before something ends up happening to remind me once again that God ALWAYS knows what's best and is ALWAYS in control!
Anne S
Maine
Grandson Restored To The Family
I had asked for prayer concerning my grandson Nathan, a young man in his thirties. For years Nathan was very unhappy with his parents, believing they let him down in many ways. So he decided to go off by himself and never have anything more to do with any family member.
We had been praying now for four years that God would restore Nathan to the family. His dad even sent plain-clothes detectives to find out where he was.
But God is faithful! Nathan went into the service and was a military policeman, but when he got out, he decided to go by Oklahoma and visit his dad. Then he visited his mom in Montana. After that, he went to Alaska, where he went to college. He became a firefighter, and then joined the
National Guard, and learned to work on diesel engines.
Recently I learned that Nathan is back home with his dad. The prayers have been answered, and Nathan is restored to his family. I give God all the glory.
Frances M
California
We had been praying now for four years that God would restore Nathan to the family. His dad even sent plain-clothes detectives to find out where he was.
But God is faithful! Nathan went into the service and was a military policeman, but when he got out, he decided to go by Oklahoma and visit his dad. Then he visited his mom in Montana. After that, he went to Alaska, where he went to college. He became a firefighter, and then joined the
National Guard, and learned to work on diesel engines.
Recently I learned that Nathan is back home with his dad. The prayers have been answered, and Nathan is restored to his family. I give God all the glory.
Frances M
California
Delivered From Overwhelming Fear
The day I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease and told I would have to have a heart-bypass operation, a fear came over me greater than any fear I had ever known. Stupidly, I watched a heart operation on tv, and it brought that fear to a new level I wouldn’t have believed possible.
About two weeks before the operation, I was in church on a Sunday morning. At communion time I started down the aisle toward the front of the church, praying “Precious Jesus, I am in such a state of fear, only you could possibly know. But I know that you faced something even more dreadful than what I’m facing now, yet you went so willingly, for us, to that Cross. Precious Jesus, I ask you for the strength that enabled you to go to that Cross. You are the source of all good, of all strength, all courage, and all love and mercy. I humbly ask you now to enable me to face this terrible fear and dread that I have, because I turn to you my precious Jesus."
My body trembling, I reached the front of the aisle and took communion. When I turned around to return to my seat, INCREDIBLY there was ABSOLUTELY NO FEAR left in me! A calmness descended upon me and so filled me, that from that day on I had not a hint of fear as I went to the hospital and had that operation which provided me with 28 more years, as of now anyway, of health and life. What an awesome God we have. How blessed are those who turn to Him in their time of need.
Estelle M
California
About two weeks before the operation, I was in church on a Sunday morning. At communion time I started down the aisle toward the front of the church, praying “Precious Jesus, I am in such a state of fear, only you could possibly know. But I know that you faced something even more dreadful than what I’m facing now, yet you went so willingly, for us, to that Cross. Precious Jesus, I ask you for the strength that enabled you to go to that Cross. You are the source of all good, of all strength, all courage, and all love and mercy. I humbly ask you now to enable me to face this terrible fear and dread that I have, because I turn to you my precious Jesus."
My body trembling, I reached the front of the aisle and took communion. When I turned around to return to my seat, INCREDIBLY there was ABSOLUTELY NO FEAR left in me! A calmness descended upon me and so filled me, that from that day on I had not a hint of fear as I went to the hospital and had that operation which provided me with 28 more years, as of now anyway, of health and life. What an awesome God we have. How blessed are those who turn to Him in their time of need.
Estelle M
California
The Baseball Bat
My son Isaac was in second grade went to a baseball camp for a week. At this camp, they raffled prizes off every day during that week. Sometimes it was a pennant, or trading cards, but the big prize to be raffled off was this Dodger-blue aluminum baseball bat. It was shiny and beautiful, and every kid in the camp wanted this bat.
One day, and this is as plain in my memory as if it were yesterday, we were driving up to the camp, and my son was sitting in the back seat talking excitedly about that bat, but his voice got a bit whiny -saying that there was no way to get that bat, but that he wanted it SO much. So I said to him, "well, I can't buy it for you, and I can't make them give it to you, but you know what - we can pray about it." So I put my hand over the seat and held his hand, and I'm driving with my left hand, and I prayed, "Lord if this bat is supposed to be Isaac's bat, then we know you'll bless and honor that, but if it's supposed to be for someone else, we'll be ok with that." I had to keep my hands on the wheel, so that was a really short prayer.
Isaac really calmed down and I said to him, "The Lord knows who that bat is supposed to be for, but there are a lot of kids who want that bat, so we just don't know whose it will be."
Well, the last day of camp was on Saturday, and they had a big picnic for all the families of the campers. There was the smell of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, and we were seated at a picnic table eating, waiting for the raffling which was going to take place after the picnic.
The raffling began, and they kept calling out numbers for different things, because there were a lot of things being raffled. After all the pennants, and the glove, finally it came down to the blue bat. They called the number and my son looked at his ticket, and...
The blue bat is in his bedroom to this day.
And as a Mom, that built up my faith, because I had no other way to get that bat for him, and even if it had been for sale, I wouldn't have had the money to buy him one, that particular bat would have sold for more than $50 which, in those days, I simply did not have. But I knew that if it was supposed to be his, the Lord would find a way.
And to this day, whenever a need comes up, I remind him how the Lord provided something for him that he had no other way of having, and he always remembers the baseball bat story to this day, as do all of us in the family.
Karen W
California
One day, and this is as plain in my memory as if it were yesterday, we were driving up to the camp, and my son was sitting in the back seat talking excitedly about that bat, but his voice got a bit whiny -saying that there was no way to get that bat, but that he wanted it SO much. So I said to him, "well, I can't buy it for you, and I can't make them give it to you, but you know what - we can pray about it." So I put my hand over the seat and held his hand, and I'm driving with my left hand, and I prayed, "Lord if this bat is supposed to be Isaac's bat, then we know you'll bless and honor that, but if it's supposed to be for someone else, we'll be ok with that." I had to keep my hands on the wheel, so that was a really short prayer.
Isaac really calmed down and I said to him, "The Lord knows who that bat is supposed to be for, but there are a lot of kids who want that bat, so we just don't know whose it will be."
Well, the last day of camp was on Saturday, and they had a big picnic for all the families of the campers. There was the smell of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, and we were seated at a picnic table eating, waiting for the raffling which was going to take place after the picnic.
The raffling began, and they kept calling out numbers for different things, because there were a lot of things being raffled. After all the pennants, and the glove, finally it came down to the blue bat. They called the number and my son looked at his ticket, and...
The blue bat is in his bedroom to this day.
And as a Mom, that built up my faith, because I had no other way to get that bat for him, and even if it had been for sale, I wouldn't have had the money to buy him one, that particular bat would have sold for more than $50 which, in those days, I simply did not have. But I knew that if it was supposed to be his, the Lord would find a way.
And to this day, whenever a need comes up, I remind him how the Lord provided something for him that he had no other way of having, and he always remembers the baseball bat story to this day, as do all of us in the family.
Karen W
California