Love Enough to Pray

Paul Harvey once shared a story of a mother who had put cheesecloth over her fruit trees to protect the fruit from the birds. One day a hummingbird came to their kitchen window and frantically pecked. The bird then darted to the tree and back to the window. After several trips, the family went outside to see what had happened and found that a baby hummingbird was trapped under the cheesecloth. When they released the bird, mother bird was again content.

That story reminded me of how I felt about my mother when I was a girl. I knew she was so intent on my succeeding spiritually that if I didn’t, I sensed she would be as determined to rescue me as that mother hummingbird was. After I was happily married to Daniel, I asked her if she had fasted a lot when I was going with a guy I knew had not met her approval.

“I don’t remember if I did much fasting, but I didn’t have much appetite to eat,” she replied indicating she had that same refusal to rest when her child was caught in a trap as the hummingbird had.

Not only was her determination to free me evident, but she understood that prayer was the work she needed to do. Andrew Murray said, “Prayer on earth is the true measure of the presence of the Spirit.”

The measure of the presence of the Spirit in our lives, in the lives of those in our families, and in all those we care for, will be determined by the amount of believing prayer we, or others, exercise.

Dear Lord, teach us to pray with the fervency we need to receive the answers You want to give.

“Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me” (Psalm 142:6).

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).