A few weeks ago I wrote a devotional on the story of my friend JoAnn's first grandbaby Emma. She spoke at her CBS group yesterday and this is an excerpt of her devotional. I am sending this because she has done a wonderful job explaining prayer....something we all can depend upon and stand upon.


It was late last August when Emma and James found out that their little baby girl was going to be born with “gastroschisis”, which is an anomaly where her intestines were on the outside of her tummy instead of on the inside and once she was born, the surgeon would need to immediately perform a procedure to allow them to gradually go back into her body. While we were all very saddened with this news, our entire family immediately put total faith and trust in the Lord.


My daughter Emily wrote a heartfelt e-mail the following morning to all of us and said: “I am committed to praying for you two and the baby and am genuinely excited to watch God work His wonders through this situation because I know He will. It’s what He does.” She then went on to say, “Here are just a few things I’ve been praying for this morning; oh, and remember to ask BIG BECAUSE GOD CAN DO SOME PRETTY COOL STUFF IF WE HAVE FAITH. HE TRULY DELIGHTS WHEN HIS CHILDREN ASK HIM FOR THINGS BECAUSE WHAT FATHER DOESN’T LIKE TO PROVIDE FOR HIS CHILDREN?” And then she listed 18 bullet prayers for them and concluded with this prayer: “Merciful and faithful Lord, because of your great love I am not consumed, for Your compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” Lord you are good to those whose hope is in YOU, to the one who seeks YOU.” Lam. 3:22-25 Emily pushed “send” on her computer and our entire family was immediately in unison with our specific prayers for precious Ella for the months to follow and this was the beginning of the amazing prayer support that Emma and James and Ella received from that day on and as of today you all and so many dear ones are still praying for her.


You see, when you are CONNECTED to the Lord you also are a part of the BODY OF CHRIST and HIS AMAZING NETWORK of prayer warriors everywhere, in every city all over the country. How blessed I was to not only have my CBS sisters here praying for them, but also my sweet sisters in the Bethesda class, our CBS central class as well as my sweet friends in the 3 other home Bible Studies that I had attended. And then there were all of my family’s NETWORK and our friend’s NETWORK all continuing to pray, many of whom did not even know our family but because they were CONNECTED to the Lord they were drawn to pray for this precious baby.

Several weeks ago I glanced at Emily’s prayer requests and was in awe that our mighty God had answered all but one of her requests. So I went to John 15: 7-11 and the heading in my Bible read: “Does God Answer ALL Prayers?” Verse 7 says, “If you abide in Me and my Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.” WOW!!!! Pretty powerful!!!! I then read the commentary at the bottom of the page in my Bible (The New American Standard Bible, The Open Bible edition) which says:


“The Bible is full of answered prayers from Genesis to Revelation. You are commanded to pray and God has promised to answer (Jere. 33:3) and that there are 2 requirements for answers to prayer. First you are to abide in Him which means to remain in His perfect Will and second His Words are to abide in you and become a vital part of your life. You are to be filled WITH and guided BY His Words. Meet these two requirements and your payers will be answered.” In summary, we are to remain CONNECTED to the Lord through His Word. Since Emma and James were already committed to the Lord and “connected” to Him, they believed that their prayers were going to be answered and prayed their requests according to His Perfect Will. The Bible is filled with answered prayers and we are able to see that God answers prayer 4 different ways:

1. The answer is sometimes IMMEDIATE. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, and he began to sink and he prayed, “Lord, save me” and the answer was immediate.

2. The answer is sometimes DELAYED. The resurrection of Lazarus is a good example. Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to come NOW to heal Lazarus, but Jesus waited 4 days until he was dead and in the tomb and then He raised him from the dead. The answer was delayed but not denied.

3. The answer is sometimes NO. When God answers with a NO He always accompanies the answer with peace and grace.

4. The answer is sometimes “different” from what you expect. You pray for perseverance and God sends tribulation because “tribulation brings about perseverance” Rom 5:3

God does answer all of our prayers not according to our wishes but according to His Perfect Will. The one prayer that was not answered was for there to be “protection from any complications”; however, Ella did have severe complications when her intestines were tangled causing a loss of blood supply that resulted in a 4th surgery when she was only 5 days old. We were told that she could NOT survive if they had to remove the majority of her small and large intestines. The answer to our prayers was “different” from what we all expected. There was much tribulation yet to Emma and James it “brought about much perseverance, proven character and HOPE and HOPE does not disappoint because of the love that was poured out in their hearts through the Holy Spirit” Rom. 5:3 That Sunday afternoon the Lord performed a MIRACLE for Ella and her surgeon who was truly an “instrument in the Lord’s hands” - exclaimed this to us for God had allowed Ella the chance to make it with only 19% of her small intestines and 50 % of her large intestines.


Dr. Masziatti DID have to remove all that he said Ella could not live without. At the very moment the Doctor came to make this announcement to Emma and James, I was reading a text message sweet Betsy had sent to me – YES, I had my phone in my hand – and it was God’s Word in an excerpt from “Jesus Calling”: “I am able to do far beyond all that you ask or imagine.” Eph. 3:20 Come to Me with positive expectations, knowing that there is no limit to what I can accomplish. The more extreme your circumstances, the more likely you are to see MY POWER AND GLORY at work in the situation. Instead of letting difficulties draw you into worrying, try to view them as setting the scene for My glorious intervention. Keep your eyes and your mind wide open to all that I am doing in your life.” WOW!!!! Our God is a mighty God! Emily’s statement was so accurate: God did work “His wonder through this situation” and we did “ask BIG” and had faith. Through the power of prayer from so many God did work a MIRACLE for Ella Rose. Oh, the blessings we receive when we are “CONNECTED” TO THE LORD!!!! How can we every think of going through the rest of this short journey of our life without the Lord’s LOVE and PEACE and His forgiveness that is needed for each and every day? How can we choose not to receive the Lord into our heart asking for His forgiveness for our sins so that we can have eternal life with Him?


The Lord sustains Ella Rose’s life now until she has surgery at age 1 ½ or 2 by being CONNECTED to 3 machines: one for the TPN which is her “super food” that provides her with her nutrition; one for the lipids which gives her the fats that she needs, both of which go through her veins from a central line; and the last is Emma’s milk that goes through her tummy through a G-button. In order for all of this to work, Ella needs to be CONNECTED by Emma and James to the machines and the machines need to work properly. A month ago, these machines were faulty causing 2 trips to the ER. When Emma and James realized that Ella was not going to survive on these machines they became her advocate and was able through MUCH PERSEVERANCE to get the most renowned health care company to provide their machines which did work properly. The lesson to be learned here is that we MUST be CONNECTED to the right power source – the Lord - and not to the world which is the alternative power source that cannot sustain our life. And just as Emma and James must CONNECT Ella to these machines each and every day in order for her to survive, we, too, must connect our hearts and our minds to the Lord so that we can” abide in Him and His Words can abide in us.”


Several years ago James went to Italy and when he visited the Vatican he bought me an amazing gift and he said that it was “The most SPECIAL and most expensive gift that he will ever buy me”. I knew immediately that it was Michelangelo’s “Creation”, but what I did not know was that it is called “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.” A month after Ella was born Catherine received a call from one of her dear friends who had been praying for Ella and said that “her husband had told his uncle who had told his sister who lived in Round-Top” precious Ella’s story and amazingly enough this lady’s prayer group began to pray for sweet Ella and while they prayed each week they were sewing this beautiful quilt to send to her as their love gift to show how Ella was “covered in prayer” by those who did not even know her. There is no “coincidence” that the name of this prayer ministry was “The Touch of the Master’s Hand” and the hand-out I am giving you was included in the packet when the quilt was sent to Ella. What a mighty network the Lord has for prayer to carry out His Perfect Will. Prayer is truly the “conduit that brings the power and provision of God into the circumstances of earth.”

AND SO MY QUESTION TO YOU TODAY IS: WILL YOU CHOOSE TO BE CONNECTED TO THE LORD?

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!