Power of Prayer or Merely Coincidence?

“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise…” (James 5:13)

Many of you have awesome experiences of answered prayer. I want to share some recent experiences where God has encouraged my own faith. Not amazingly miraculous to the blind eye, yet with a little seed of faith, they are impressive indeed. We can all doubt, but with God all is possible!

A long story made short, but my employer wasn’t crediting me with all of my work experience and with a Friday, November 21st deadline approaching for this work to be credited, I was stressing out about finding a letter from a former principal that stated my work experience. I looked late in the night on Tuesday for the letter. I knew I had put in somewhere... I couldn’t have thrown it away… It must be around here somewhere... Yet, papers were being flipped, bags were being opened, and even the trashcan was being looked into. Yet, I failed to find the letter and it was about 2:00 am. Where was it?

On Wednesday night, I again became stressed about the letter because the deadline wasn’t getting any further away. As I stressed out, I realized that I needed to cry out to God for his peace. So that is what I did, I got on my knees and cried to the Lord. If it’s in your will, let me find the letter. I got up and looked behind a wooden chest. I couldn’t believe my eyes! A letter was tri-folded standing up on the carpet between the chest and the wall. I had looked in the same exact spot the night before!!! I praised God! I don’t know how it got there that night and the only physical explanation is that my aunt went to borrow an external CD drive, which I think was the first time she had ever went to get it, and somehow possibly knocked the letter on the carpet. Anyhow, I didn’t need an physical explanation. I had God to praise!

The power of prayer or merely coincidence? Well, a few weeks later, during parent conference week, we were to turn copies of our report cards to our principal. Well, guess what. I had lost the stack of my finished report cards! A friend of mine assured me by saying, “They’ll show up.” So, patiently with hope I went through about a week and a half meeting with new parents, hoping while looking through all of my grades and reports that they would pop up. I mean they were big, huge copies of reports. Not 8 ½” by 11” but something larger like 14” by 22” and carbon copies of different colors. But as the week went on, I thought maybe a teacher had accidentally picked them up, or maybe they were thrown out. I looked through the room, in all the cabinets and in the classroom library. I mean c’mon they couldn’t be hard to find in one room. Now the end of the week was here, and frustration set in. I couldn’t find them. That is when I went to prayer and asked our Lord for help if it was in his will. My hands opened a cabinet, (I had searched it before) and my eyes went up onto the top shelf, farther back on the shelf this time. I saw the pink and gold colors of the carbon copies of my … Yes, my report cards! The Lord impressed me! I praised God for his glorious power.

Okay, still coincidence? Well over Christmas break, my family decided to watch a movie after dinner in town. I excused myself from watching a movie with family with the hope of cleaning old C: drives for my parents. I went home from dinner and I began to work. Wait, I had forgotten my laptop bag with the floppy disk to clean the C: drives in my parents’ car. Only problem. They were in the movie theater, so I couldn’t call them and I didn’t have the key to their car which was sitting in the movie theatre parking lot. Was I to wait for my parents to return at about 10:30 pm? But, I was leaving the next day to go back to the Bay Area. I couldn’t wait. The drives needed to be cleaned tonight!
I searched the usual spots for extra keys; my father’s drawers, in a purse, and on a counter in the game room. I walked around the house and then finally, I came to my senses. I focused on the Lord. The Lord has the power to help me find an extra set of keys. I have faith in the Lord and if it is his will, he’ll guide me to the keys. I walked into an extra room and saw several jackets lying on the furniture. I don’t know what coat belonged to whom, but I checked one coat. In the pockets, I felt some keys. It couldn’t be…. But is was! It was the keys!! I told the Lord that he impressed me once more, and I praised him even more.

When I told my mother the story of prayer, she seemed to not believe how I had found the keys. Extra keys are always kept in certain places. A coat's pocket is not one of them. It seemed she had not even known where they had been.

They had been lost.


Well, now she knew how I had felt.


And how to find them.


(Share your experiences by making comments. I would love to hear them.)