A Surprising Answer to a Mother's Prayers

When William Mackay left for college, his mother feared he was heading down the wrong path spiritually. She gave him a Bible in which she wrote his name, her name and a Bible verse, and prayed much for him.

After college he went on to medical school. One day, while drunk, he pawned the Bible his mother had given him for money to buy more liquor.

Some years later, one of his patients, learning that he only had a few hours to live, asked Dr. Mackay, "Will you please send for my landlady, and ask her to send me the Book?" The doctor agreed, and within a few hours the landlady arrived with the Book. It was the dying patient's Bible.

After the patient died, Dr. Mackay was curious what book the patient wanted. He reached under the pillow and pulled it out. When he opened it, his eyes fell immediately upon the front flyleaf. To his amazement, it was the very Bible he had received from his mother years before.

Overwhelmed, he slipped the Bible under his coat and rushed back to his office. He fell to his knees praying that God would have mercy on him, forgive him for his sinful life, and save him. As he prayed, he remembered a verse his mother taught him: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Dr. Mackay immediately contacted his mother to tell her how God used the Bible she gave him to dramatically answer her prayers. He became a Presbyterian preacher, author and songwriter. In fact, it was he who wrote the hymn:

"Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Hallelujah, Amen.

Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Revive us again!"

Thank You, dear Father, for Your faithfulness to answer our prayers-often in the way we would least expect the answer.

"Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly]" (1 Thes. 5:17 Amp.)