It was a Friday afternoon two weeks ago when my husband answered the phone. I listened from the next room to one side of the conversation that was brief, but solemn. It was the doctor with results from a CT scan performed just a few hours earlier. It was the news that no one ever wants to hear. Steve had metastatic melanoma in several internal organs. Upon hearing the news, I was stunned, speechless. I had no tears at that moment, just pure shock.

The next few days were a blur. There were perpetual tears flowing. Our children came to be with us and stayed, some for a week and others for two weeks. Our elders and their wives came the following day with casseroles and coolers loaded with food. They all stood together in our driveway praying for us and all that we were going through in the days ahead.

In the days since that phone call, I have never prayed more frequently and fervently in my life. I put a wallpaper photo on my phone of a hand reaching up to the sky to remind me to pray every time I open my phone. I pray when I wake up in the morning, multiple times throughout the day, and then I fall asleep with a prayer on my lips. Some of my prayers have been very specific requests pertaining to events of the day. Some of my prayers have been gut wrenching cries of despair and fear. I truly “pray without ceasing” as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to do.

In the past two weeks, my prayers have become bolder. Our current situation is too important and too urgent, to pray half-hearted “hoping God does something” prayers. I can’t pray with doubts, else I surely won’t receive anything from the Lord, (James 1:6-8).

I am praying bold prayers because:

• He is all-knowing. Our God knows every detail of how to treat this cancer. He is the one who created and knew Steve while he was still being formed, (Psalm 139:13). And, if He knows every hair on Steve’s head (Luke 12:7), of course He knows exactly how to heal his body.
• He is all-powerful and nothing is impossible for Him. It wouldn’t be sufficient just to know what is happening with Steve’s cancer, but our God has all power to do something about it, (Job 42:2, Matthew 19:26, Psalm 147:5).
• He loves us and wants the best for us. He wants us come to Him with our anxieties and fears because He cares, (1 Peter 5:7, Psalm 55:22).
• I know that since I belong to Him, He listens to my requests, (1 Peter 3:12, Proverbs 15:29). Without a relationship with God, I would have no confidence in prayer, (John 9:31).
• He is my Father and wants me to come to Him with my requests. Fathers want their children to talk with them and come to them with their needs (Matthew 7:7-11).
• He tells me that my prayers will make a difference, (James 5:16).
• I am asking for God’s will to be done. I don’t know what goes on behind the heavenly scenes. Job didn’t know the big picture when he experienced all the suffering that he did. Sometimes God lets us suffer because a greater good can come from it. I want this experience to have purpose and meaning. I want His will to be done and I ask for that, while at the same time I ask God to give Steve a lot more years on this earth to continue his preaching, teaching, mentoring, and service to Him, (1 John 5:14-15).
• Ultimately, God is able to do even more than I ask or think, (Ephesians 3:20-21). What if I just ask for Steve to be comfortable when I could be asking for his complete healing? I want to pray big and let God answer bigger!

“Let us therefore come BOLDLY to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).