John Wang invited Missionary John Knight to visit his house church in China. Before one of the services began John Knight wanted to write something down but didn’t have a pen, so he asked John Wang if he could borrow one. As he handed it to him, Wang’s hand trembled. John Knight asked him why his hands shook so. In his very humble and shy way, Mr. Wang smiled and said, “It’s a memorial from the Lord.” John Knight asked him to explain.

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.

One chilly day, Nancy Farris hurried to hang the last of the wet clothes on the clothesline. As she neared the end of her task, the line broke. Clothes plummeted to the ground.

One morning when one of our children was in high school, I recognized that many teens succumb to Satan’s tactics during their high school years. Then I remembered that after Elisha had put flour into the poisonous stew, what would have been deadly was made into wholesome food. (2 Kings 4:41) This encouraged me to believe that through prayer, situations that might otherwise have been fatal could be made safe. If touched by God, they could even be nourishing. Satan loses his ability to harm in the areas we cover with believing prayer.

Oswald Chambers, author of the Christian classic My Utmost for His Highest, knew he was born again but longed to be filled with the Spirit. He prayed for the cleansing fullness of the Spirit. Then the Spirit used circumstances to show him how sinful his own heart was. He continued to preach, people were saved and blessed, but in his own soul, there was darkness and misery.

Isobel Kuhn accepted an invitation from the president of Moody Bible Institute where she attended to speak to the students about their spiritual lives. As she prayed, she felt a need to encourage students to form a habit of putting the Lord first each day. She used 2 Chronicles 29:11 for her text: "My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense" (KJV).

“The hardest temptation in my Christian walk has been that of working daily with another man,” Julie admitted. “Because we had daily contact, he shared problems and I saw his strengths and weaknesses. He would look deeply into my eyes and I into his. Before I understood my feelings, I had fallen in love with him.”

“I think I should be involved in more ministry.” The friend speaking was the wife of a minister who had temporarily stepped away from the pastorate.