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"And the shadow on the stairway turned backwards ten steps." |
Jamie was sleeping in her hospital bed this afternoon when I arrived. It’s the first time I’ve gone to visit her during her many months off and on in the hospital. She is a 26-year old warrior, a hero of the faith in the eyes of our church family. Jamie is someone I have met and talked to only on a couple of occasions, but when you’ve been one of many praying for someone for months on end, you know them.
Bone marrow transplants, graft vs. host disease, chemo ...all have ravaged this young woman’s body, but not her spirit. And not her unflinching faith and trust in Jesus.
My family knows leukemia far too well. My brother underwent a bone marrow transplant, and one of our sisters was the donor. Thanks to God’s grace and mercy, He was healed. Not many years later my mother was diagnosed with leukemia. Thanks to God’s grace and mercy, He took her.
From the eyes of faith, I know what it’s like to pray for healing for two different loved ones with two different outcomes. Even so, when it comes to praying for healing, I will always choose to err on the side of faith, because the LORD alone has the final word. Not the doctors, not those who lack faith or fear the worst, not even Jamie.
I learned from her mom that today brought potential good news, but many days the medical diagnosis seems grim. So, aside from persevering in faith, how will I continue to pray for Jamie?
I have been studying the prayers in scripture of praying kings, prophets and New Testament church leaders which is an insightful read found in The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer. We learn about King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18-20. When King Hezekiah and Jerusalem were under threat of attack by an Assyrian army numbering 185,000, Hezekiah took the messenger’s report, went to the House of God, and spread the report before the Lord. He pleaded with God to avert the attack, so that all would know He alone was God. The victory was secured in a way that only God could do but not before forceful petition by the Praying King in the House of God.
Hezekiah gets very sick. It is decreed by God through the prophet Isaiah that his illness will result in death. While we know that Jamie does not believe her leukemia is ‘sickness unto death’, grim medical reports can most certainly decree it.
So how did Hezekiah respond to this dismal decree? The Praying King goes to the wall and prays:
"Remember now, O LORD, I beseech you, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight."
While he was still praying, Isaiah returns with a word from the LORD:
“I have heard your prayers, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you.”
As proof that God can reverse the laws of nature, medical reports, and His own decree, He causes the shadow from the setting sun on the staircase in the kings’ palace to go back up 10 steps. This staircase was a feat of engineering that served as a sundial in the days of King Ahaz. Causing the shadow to reverse ten steps backwards (or ten degrees in reverse) defied the laws of nature and time. It was something that only God could do. God Himself stated that the prayers of this righteous man moved the hand of God.
A prayer for Jamie:
“Remember now, O LORD, we beseech you, how Jamie has walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and has done what is good in Your sight. Hear her prayers, see her tears, and heal her. Reverse the shadow of the setting sun on the staircase! Reverse this disease, reverse the effects of the treatment, and do what only You can do, so all will know that You alone are God." In the Name of Jesus.
