That actually works?

Prayer is a mysterious thing. The cynical and/or the non-believers may say prayer is really just meditation for crazy people (religious people). But as move Christians know, prayer has wonderful power to heal and comfort and protect and guide us through all the good and bad moments of our lives. Prayer is no guarantee that bad times will never befall you or that whatever you prayer for will materialize, but God hears our prayers and I think he considers them indeed.

I say this because I think that my first prayer request came true. The funny thing is that it was not for me, but a friend(and roommate), and non-believer at that.  I have always felt that he would be receptive to the Christian message, but only in the right way, because I could sense their was some overt hostility, even if below that he agreed with many Christian ideas. Because of this, I began praying God would make it possible to give an opportunity for myself or   something to bring Christ into my friend's life.

I had just started praying to God about things of a more personal nature, as my prayers had been more general up to that point, and trying to really act and do God's will more often in my life.

So sure enough I'm in the kitchen yesterday eating crackers when my friend arrives from work. He tells me how work had been stressful then throws a bible on the table that he said he found on the subway. I replied half jokingly that it must be a sign from God, which he replied that he needed something to look to with work and everything stressing him and personal issues as well, and said he used to read the bible. We didn't really talk about it more, it didn't seem like the time to press the issue, but he did take the bible into his room.

In any case its good to see that God does work through us if we allow him, perhaps one could chalk it to coincidence, but one does not find a bible on the subway every day. So to all that feel that prayer is not working for you, look around and stay alert, the Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways.