Sitting in that hospital cafeteria I knew I was running out of options. My husband, Ian, was by now needing blood transfusions every two weeks – just to keep him alive. It wasn’t looking good. I had in my hand a report I’d put together to give to the lovely consultant who’s been seeing Ian for the previous eighteen months.
Earlier, as we’d waited to see a consultant, I prayed “Lord, if you want me to give this information to Ian’s usual consultant, please let it be him that we see.” Sadly it had been another consultant who’d seen us that day and I’d known that it would have been pointless to give my little report to him. “Ah well,” I thought, “I prayed – perhaps it simply wasn’t meant to be.”
While Ian went to make another appointment, I walked down the corridor to the little hospital cafe. As I sat there, my mobile rang. It was a doctor friend, ringing to see if I’d been able to give my report to our consultant – and disappointed to hear that I hadn’t. As we spoke, our lovely consultant walked around the corner and into the cafe right in front of me. I went over and gave my report to him.
Little did I know at that moment that this would turn out to be a life-changing answer to prayer for Ian and a stunning example of God being glorified in the answering of prayer.
Eighteen months earlier, Ian had collapsed and was rushed into hospital. He was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a cancer of the bone marrow in which blood cells do not mature or become healthy blood cells. We were told that the condition was incurable and that he would need blood transfusions whenever his blood count dropped too low.
Ian – well again
Within six months Ian no longer needed blood transfusions. He was completely well and living a normal, very active life. And all this without any medical treatment at all. In 2013 we watched a very excited consultant running though Ian’s blood test results on his computer and exclaiming “all three blood lines are back to normal !!!”
Medicine had been unable to offer a cure. And even after 35 years of nutrition research and eighteen months of working through every nutrient that is associated with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, I’d got nowhere. The little report I’d been able to give to the consultant in the hospital cafe really had been my last option.
However, for the previous eighteen months
many people had been praying.
My little report prompted the consultant to offer Ian a place on a new drug trial. In the end that offer was withdrawn because it was felt that Ian was too ill to undergo the trial. By that time, however, my research into the new drug revealed that it was aimed at triggering a missing enzyme that converts the B vitamin folic acid into methyl folate – a form that the body can utilise.
Ian had been tested for folic acid deficiency when he was first admitted to hospital and the results had shown that there was no deficiency. What that test couldn’t show was that, without the missing enzyme, the folic acid couldn’t be utilised to produce blood cells. My research into the new drug trial, however, prompted me to send to America for an already-converted form of folic acid – methyl folate.
Already-converted form of folic acid
After starting to take the methyl-folate, the time between Ian’s blood transfusions began to lengthen. Three weeks – then four. Six weeks – then eight. After six months on the supplement he no longer needed the transfusions.
The medical profession considered his condition incurable. I couldn’t have known about the missing enzyme so all my good nutrition failed to solve the problem. In the end the breakthrough came in the form of an answer to my little prayer in that hospital waiting room “Lord, if you want me to give this information to Ian’s usual consultant, please let it be him that we see.”
The consultant we had been unable to see had walked into that hospital cafe as I’d been sitting there telling my friend that I hadn’t been able to give him my little report. My research had brought me very close to the root of the problem – very close indeed. But without the understanding of the missing enzyme, it wasn’t enough. However, that report would trigger a series of events which would reveal the missing enzyme!
The key to powerful prayer
So I was left in no doubt whatsoever, that God had revealed what neither I nor the consultant could have known. God had glorified Himself in the answering of prayer. As a result I and others became even more delighted in Him !
This is the key to powerful prayer!
You see, some years earlier, I had come across a quote by C.H. Spurgeon, under the heading Let God’s Glory Be Your Aim. “This should be the single desire of the Christian,” he wrote. “All other wishes must be subservient and tributary to this one … You are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than a single eyes to your Lord’s glory. Let this ambition fire your soul; be this the foundation of every enterprise upon which you enter, and this your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chill; make God your only object.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1834 – 1892
Spurgeon’s words had fastened upon my heart and convinced me of what the primary motive must be in all my prayers. I had somehow ‘got it’ – that God answers prayer so that He is clearly seen to be at work. His glorious presence, causing us to delight in Him, fuelling our worship of Him, and making memories for us to share with others so that they might know that the revolutionary love of Christ is not about blind faith but about very real, tangible experience. God is most glorified when we are most delighted in Him!
So deeply entrenched had this understanding become that, for years, I had asked God to answer my prayers in a way that would most glorify Him. And what amazing answers I’d seen – culminating in the answer to all the prayers that had been prayed for Ian when his situation looked so hopeless.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
We are not asked to delight in a distant unknowable God – but in a God who delights in finding innumerable ways of demonstrating His love and care for us – by making His glorious presence felt in our lives – answering our rightly-motivated prayers in a way that could only be Him – and making memories that will fuel our worship for eternity!
Prayer for God to glorify Himself
in the answering of that prayer – is powerful prayer!
Now click here to read about a specific call to prayer
A prayer
Dear God, in all I pray, may my motive be to see you glorified in the answering of my prayers. Let that be my ambition in everything I do – that others should delight in Jesus and glorify you in doing so. Then make my rightly-motivated prayers powerful to achieve what you intend them to achieve. Amen
His Glorious Presence 