Why Did You Quit Praying for Me?

"Why did you stop praying for me?" Lois asked her friend.

How did Lois know the friend had pulled her card from her prayer file just a month ago and marked it "obsolete"? She had been praying for Lois for three years with no sign of results. They would occasionally exchange good-humored opinions on whether Lois's church was "Christian" or "Science."

"I'm still praying for you," she would tell Lois as they passed at the grocery story.

"That's okay if it makes you happy," Lois would reply, adding that she'd make it without the prayers.

Now Lois was asking why she had quit. "But how did you know?"

"Remember that long time of recuperating from typhus?  While you were praying, it seemed strong arms carried me along. When you stopped, I began struggling on my own. I went deeper into Christian Science."

What could she say? She reached over to Lois and said, "Here's my promise: From now on I will pray until..."

"Until what?" she mocked. "Until I buy your philosophy?"

"It is no philosophy. It is the Way."

Lois's friend took her card out of "obsolete" and brought her name before God each morning.

Two years passed and encounters were less frequent. One Sunday her praying friend learned Lois was attending church! Had she come to grips with the eternal question?

"Yes, it's true!" Lois exclaimed over the phone.

The next morning, when she came to Lois's dog-eared, smudged card, with joy she marked it "Answered." It had been five years of praying.

Thank You, Jesus, that if we resist Satan in a moment of temptation to doubt, our faith is stronger.

We "ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).