Prayer & Fasting

During these last days of my dad’s life I did something I had never tried before. Prayer and fasting. I had read about it in the Bible so often. As a Church we had occasionally prayed and fasted about special matters. This was different. I had a sense of great urgency. My dad was facing death. God had to either heal him or save him quickly. I knew I couldn’t lift a finger to influence my dad’s beliefs. I knew only God could do what was needed. I wanted to plead with God, to beseech Him, to implore Him, to beg Him to save my dad from hell. So, during these few weeks I fasted and prayed every second or third day. I didn’t plan it. It just seemed to happen. I would be preparing to go to bed and I would know that I would need to fast and pray the following day. So I did. I must confess it was the only time since I’ve been saved that I’ve sensed that urgency.

Two interesting things happened during those times of fasting. As I pleaded with God to have mercy on my dad I remembered my own prayer of more than five years earlier. I had completely forgotten about it. I had asked God to bring me to where I would hear the true Gospel and to a true Church. I hadn’t realised until this moment that God had answered both parts! It encouraged me tremendously to pray with more faith in God’s power and desire to answer. The other experience was far more personal and challenging

One evening as I was praying and crying for my dad, I had a fleeting glimpse of Dundalk. I didn’t actually see anything clearly. What I remember now is that I had the clear impression that not only did I need to be praying for my dad to be saved but that the whole town I lived in was in darkness and needed the Gospel too! I was overwhelmed. I felt that I had been so selfish by praying so seriously for my dad and not thinking of the tens of thousands around me who needed God’s mercy just as much.