That kind of prayer

Hi all. I've had a roller-coaster 24 hours. I got news that a dear, childhood friend was very ill. Some air had entered her blood stream through an IV port, done damage to her lungs and to her frontal lobe. Suddenly, a 45 year old woman is in a coma in the hospital. First I was shocked, and then I started to pray.

Now, we Reformed Presbyterian Christians are funny about prayer. We know it's commanded, and we know it's important. But we've been taught so thoroughly (and truly) that God is in control of all things, and that He is unchangeable. This confuses us, and we become limp in prayer. We bookend our prayers with "Only if it's your will, Lord," and we buffer our zeal in pleading with God, as the widow in Scripture pleaded with the judge.

That is, until we're in REAL need, and are desperate. Then, even a Reformed Christian will implore God, and demand (yes, demand) that he DO something. I did pray that way for my husband a number of years ago. Well, yesterday I prayed that way for my friend. I implored the Lord, I implored for his glory and for her healing. I did that odd combination of confident pleading. For a woman who the doctors said had little hope of regaining consciousness, much less memory.

And this morning I got an email telling me that, yesterday, she woke. And recognized everyone, and spoke. The doctors say it is a miracle. I say the designer who made her body, decided to correct the damage. And how thrilling to know that I was part of that healing - even hundreds of miles away. I wanted to be with my friend. How wonderful that God has given us a way to intervene for a friend, at such a distance.

Some might smirk and shake their heads at such thoughts. I know those prayers work. Thank you, Lord.