Harder Family

Harder Family

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Prayer & Perseverance



"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him." 1 John 5:14-15

Prayer is powerful! It is the way God has allowed us to access His throne and discover who He is in a more intimate way. I saw the quote below recently and thought it was applicable in our situation. We had been seeking God's wisdom for various things in our lives, and it seemed that He was either ignoring us, or just saying "no" to everything. Little did we know that He had something in store for us right where we were. Below it says, "Sometimes He delays His answers according to His wisdom and for our benefit." I now see so clearly that even though God's answers at the time seemed like "no", He was really getting us right to the spot He wanted us...in His perfect will. 

"We come to God with our specific requests, and we have God's promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive specifically what we asked for (Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27). He has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for (1 John 5:14-15). Sometimes He delays His answers according to His wisdom and for our benefit. In these situations, we are to be diligent and persistent in prayer (Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1-8). Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God's will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own." (www.gotquestions.org)

I believe prayer has been instrumental in this whole situation. The peace that Wayne and I have had throughout this whole process could only be from God. Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." There is no human explanation for what we've experienced. We know that we have people praying for us all across this country. It has been our prayer from the beginning that God is glorified and we've just been praying for His will to be done. God has heard our prayers and He has answered according to His great power. Thankfully, Wayne's success in surgery and quick recovery was part of His will!

All of this leads me to the update on Wayne that illustrates God's great power and how prayer is powerful. Wayne was transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) this afternoon!! The insurance approved the request quickly and didn't drag their feet (praise the Lord!). Tomorrow morning Wayne will start intense rehabilitation. He will spend at least three hours a day: speech therapy, OT therapy, and physical therapy. Wayne has been persevering through all of this with such strength. I'm so proud of him and love seeing all the progress he is making. He was speaking in more sentences today. We did have another funny moment when he was trying to name a stethoscope. He kept trying and just being a sound or two off. He finally gave up as he laughed about it. What I look forward to the most is hearing Wayne pray again as he did in the video above!!

Today was a busy day for Wayne between being transferred from Northwestern Hospital to RIC and all his visitors. I drove the girls downtown today with his mom to see Wayne. it was the first time they had seen him since Sunday night. Everyone really enjoyed the visit. After I dropped the girls off at home, I ran to O'Hare and picked up our friends the Griffin's. The Griffins (Tyson and Renee) are from Georgia and Tyson went to Moody with Wayne. This is the type of friendship that lasts a lifetime and we are so thankful for them! We drove downtown and got to visit Wayne in his new room. Wayne started to get tired, so we left him and went to dinner. We met up with Catherine Shada, another great friend from Moody. I was able to let down and just laugh at dinner with them. 

After we left for dinner, Wayne's friend Troy Parrish came to visit him. Mark and Zeljko also visited Wayne again. It is fun to see Wayne's face when people come and visit him. He perks up and you can tell he wants to actively participate in the conversation. Our friend Tyson read this verse to Wayne tonight. Ecclesiastes 5:2 "God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." Since Ecclesiastes is one of Wayne's favorite books in the Bible, I thought the verse was perfect for him. 

Tomorrow I get to go visit Wayne again and I'll be bringing him some new clothes to wear. He gets to replace the hospital gown with comfortable clothes that he can exercise in while he does therapy. Each step gets us closer to bringing him home!! Pray that God gives us guidance for each step along this journey. I'm trying not to worry or fret about things, but thinking ahead about radiation/chemo can be overwhelming at times. I just have to remember how God has brought us this far...He won't abandon us now.






4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update! We love you and we are joining you in prayer! ... that our Lord would not only sustain you but overwhelm you worth His never ending love. .. from which nothing can separate us from

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  2. Amazing how God was preparing you all for this time!

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  3. So good to see Wayne with the girls. Amazing that he is already in rehab and going to start working toward recovering. God is so good!!

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