I wrote this testimony up a few years ago, but I never published it. I feel it’s time to publish it now, so that it may serve as encouragement to those who are journeying something similar, to those that need to know that they are worthy of love, and of loving again, and for those too that need to know that their prayers matter because God is Good!
There is a local fruit and vegetable shop in my suburb. The staff are friendly, they stop and say “hi”. It’s my local community, part of “my turf”. There have been a number of prayer assignments there over the years, and the most recent one was just last Friday …
A couple of years ago, the manager of this store helped me out and was exceptionally kind. He is that sort of bloke … a beautiful example of an ordinary person being kind to another human being! A little while later he saw me in the store and asked how I was doing. I said great compared to where I had been, thanks to people like him around me. I then got on to ask him how he was doing …
He looked and opened up his heart to me. He had just journeyed through a divorce he said. She had been his best friend. There were no children from the relationship, which he felt was a blessing. He still hurt. He looked ready to cry.
I wasn’t too sure what to say at the time, but he said passionately that he never wanted to go through loving another person again. He said he would never marry again – it hurt too much when it fell apart. Everything about me went on alert … he was cursing himself out of the place of his extreme pain. looked at him and said quietly:
“now that would be a shame. Your’e a good man, and it would be sad to deprive someone of you … you would make a wonderful husband and a wonderful father … your a kind person and generous hearted, and it would be such a shame for you to not be willing to risk again …”
The tears nearly brimmed over as the words hit his open heart. He thanked me and I smiled at him, wanting to fix his pain, but knowing I couldn’t do that …
I had wanted to pray for him then and there, but felt unsure and so as I left I started to pray for him privately. Calling healing, love and blessing into his life.
It was sometime later, a few months maybe, or longer, I saw him and there was a gleam to his eye and a quickness to his step … I said “hello” and commented on how he was looking. He looked at me and told me that he had met someone special … I smiled and asked for some more details. I let him know that I had prayed for him after I left the day he had told me of his divorce and he excitedly said that the prayers had been answered. I laughed and said that I was delighted for him, that he was too special to hide himself under a rock forever … he grinned and thanked me again saying that he had taken on my words of encouragement sometime ago …
I offered to pray for him at this point and he agreed, telling me some of what he felt he wanted prayer for …
Well this first relationship did not pan out, and he has seen a few more people … but he is not crushed each time. He is still hopeful that one day he will meet a person with whom he can share his life…
I see him regularly and catch up with how he is each time … he is a part of my community, and a blessing to those that he works for, and that work under his supervision. Sometimes I will pray for him, other times it is purely pleasantries.
The last time I saw him was a few Fridays ago. I was sitting outside a coffee shop having a cuppa with my husband in the sunshine. There was the usual banter, and a bit of Aussie teasing, and I asked him what he was up to while the store was closed (where he worked was being renovated). He told me he was heading off to Dubai for a holiday so I called him over and prayed for him again, asked God to bless him and to make his paths straight, and that He would be granted wisdom.
He grinned and looked at us both and said he planned to have a brilliant time …
I watched him walk away and thought of the kindness he had shown me. I thought of the broken man he had been when he had poured his heart out in the store a little later, and how he had healed and grown strong again, knowing that he was worth being loved and that he was worth loving again …
Did my prayers make a difference? I don’t know for sure, I’d like to believe so. What I do know is that he poured his heart out to me in the middle of the store, and that in that moment I could speak life into the place of pain in his heart. These words hit home, and he said they had meant a great deal. I had a strong burden on my heart for him as I left, and I prayed and lifted him up to my God. Would he have healed anyway … maybe … but what I know and believe is that to walk as Jesus walked, when we feel compassion for people, we are to stop and pray (whether we do that face to face or privately that’s between you and God) but regardless I do not believe that God gives us a heart for people to just feel sad … but to do something about it. I believe these prayers matter, and I believe that these prayers make a difference. I believe that we are called to the lost, hurting and wounded, and I believe that God sends them to us to speak life into them because …
God is Good!
God is Good! All the time, and all the time God is Good!😊
Amen!
lol I just got done praying with my family and reading psalms 91 😊
Thank you for sharing this story. Your prayers, listening to his heart, being a friend all make a difference. The man’s life is not over yet. One act of kindness can have a ripple effect through the lives of many people. He helped you. You cared and prayed and God gives the increase. God is so Good!
Thank you Pure Glory – the blessing flowed both ways. We were so grateful for his help.
Yes, it was his kindness that first got your attention. It is amazing how much fruit comes from one kindness leading to a chain reaction! God is Good.
Well done Good and Faithful servant!
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Hello again Beautiful Heart,Thank you for posting your stories again. It has been a huge reminder about the power of prayer. After 3 yrs of very difficult trauma and deaths in our family circle including a beautiful 21 year old friend that I that I had embraced into it while my hubby was getting cancer treatment ( he is with us and well thank God )he had even prayed for her life instead while they where both in hospital, saying that he had lived 68 yrs . Two days before she died I sat with her reading to her Jesus words from John 14 through to 17 while holding her hand. she was squeezing my hand in response to keep reading . It was a huge blessing her beautiful 40 yr old mama and her beloved also beautiful sister where believing for her miracle too, so was her Muslim aunty who was facing Mecca praying ti Alah nonstop in her hospital room. And me with my Jesus. There was so much love and faith and hope in there. we of both religions where praying all together in unity of heart but different beliefs. such a beautiful presence of Blessing and Joy in that room for that month as I and my Jesus prayers where included by her and her family along with theirs in her most precious moments. I believed her healing was sure. I even stood there prayed for her resurrection as her father was placing her into her grave I really believed for her healing and her Ressurection and for the souls that where grieving and watching. Surely such a miracle would bring them to Jesus.. Only to embrace her inconsolable grieving Mumma afterwards. Yet so thankful for the encounters I had with her and the lessons I learned while walking alongside her at the end of her journey on earth. Then another blow . My daughter’s brother in law 40 yr old Dean whom we had prayed with and reached out to many times through his battle with gambling addiction and then heavy drugs . He wad open to Jesus but struggling with his brokeness abd guilt. He seemed to be the happiest we had all known him to be since he had become a daddy to his beloved little girl . He was making extra efforts to get his life straight for her sake as well as hers when he was tragically killed one night on the Calder freeway after visiting his 13 month old little girl. This too rocked our whole family who he was very close with. Including my darling 11 yr and 9 yr old grandsons who he was an adoring and adored uncle .after contending in prayer for the se situations I can’t say that I was not affected and didn’t go through my questions with our Loving Father and still Good… I know That I know that I know He is Bec ❤.Then more heartbreak for my very faithful cousin/best friend and sister in Christ Alex (in the Greek orthodox way ). Her beautiful 30 yr old son suddenly died in his sleep…. more hours of pain and support to my cousin walking with her online with her grief for her son . She is so inspiring she now passes her time painting beautiful icons to deal with her pain . Followed by the sudden just before Christmas death of my husband’s much loved sister. She was bible reading, believer and very supportive of us during our life’s difficulties, who was strangled by her husband of 55 years. He was on depression meds and we where reaching out to him and supporting them through this in prayer. He who had never been violent to even a fly in his whole life. He is now in jail for 11 yrs a victim of doctors neglect and an inadequate system . Both his loving wife and 2 devasted daughters are Bible believing Christians . ?????? Many Q,s about Every thing My Theology my beliefs and my life has had a shaking or a huge earth quake more likely.I am now currently walking out on messenger 😫😭what seem to be the last days of my 58 year old beloved brother who is alone in Greece where he stubbornly chose to remain alone even while his battling with stage 4 prostate Cancer. He elected no chemo and radio therapy (He suffers from weed induced Phsychosis didn’t trust docs and big pharma , goes in and out of it in our conversations) and despite our family prayers and thanking God for my brothers life till now and respecting his choices.it has metastasized to his bones. The consequence is unbearable pain that has him bedridden and alone . I have prayed that God would make a way for me to go care for him in his last moments since he didn’t want to come home to Australia where he grew up for 20 years. I have been trusting and believing for the right time to leave my husband and finances etc to go ) However even the borders have shut down now 😫 and the one ex girl friends he has is risking fines and breaking covid19 iso rules to go see him every now and there. Thankfully he was admired to hospital last night . Still believing and trusting for his miracle ….. please join me with your strong heart….Ps dear Beth, I did receive your email invitation to come for the gathering you had for missionary your friends and I wanted so badly to come. I was trying to wing it as I would have loved to see you again. But in the end things got to so busy with our then shift from Greensborough to Clyde North that I didn’t even have a chance to respond to your email. I had to resign myself to my limits and send my prayers only. I hope it went well for them.Thank you for the encouragement and i pray I dont burden you wit this debrief that has been so cathartic for me .With Love In Christ AlwaysChristine Maglaras Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Dear Christine, you have certainly been in a very tough season, a season that I would suggest requires you to choose to believe that God is always good, while still having so many questions. To acknowledge our own doubt, while choosing to believe, and telling God our all is so healthy. You are a precious soul, and so important in His Kingdom. Step into worship, take communion daily, and stay plugged into others in this time. Don’t isolate your heart, even while you isolate your body. Much love precious one. Beth XXX