After my previous post (regarding limitations) the LORD brought to mind a story I had read some time back. It comes from the book “The Practice of Prayer by G. Campbell Morgan. The LORD once again reminded me through the re-reading of this story that I am only limited by my perception of my situation and/or circumstances.

Morgan says,

There comes to me the thought of one woman who, to my
knowledge, since 1872 in this great babel of London, was in perpetual pain, and
yet in constant prayer. She was a woman twisted and distorted by
suffering, and yet exhaling the calm and strength of the secret of the Most
High. In 1872 she was a bedridden girl in the North of London, praying
that God would send revival to the Church of which she was a member, and yet
into which even then she never came. She had read in the little paper
called Revival, which subsequently became The Christian, the story of a work
being done in Chicago among ragged children by a man called Moody. She had
never seen Moody, but putting that little paper under her pillow, she began to
pray: “O Lord, send this man to our Church.” She had no means of
reaching him or communicating with him. He had already visited the country
in 1867, and in 1872 he started again for a short trip with no intention of
doing any work. Mr. Lessey, however, the pastor of the church of which
this girl was a member, met him and asked him to preach for him. He
consented, and after the evening service he asked those who would decide for
Christ to rise, and hundreds did so. He was surprised, and imagined that
his request had been misunderstood. He repeated it more clearly, and again
the response was the same. Meeting were continued throughout the following
ten days, and four hundred members were taken into the church. In telling
me this story Moody said: “I wanted to know what this meant. I began
making inquiries and never rested until I found a bedridden girl praying that
God would bring me to that Church. He had heard her, and brought me over
four thousand miles of land and sea in answer to her request. This story
is told in the life of D.L. Moody by his son: but now let me continue it.
That girl was a member of my church when I was pastor at New Court. She
has since passed to the rest and joy of Heaven. When in 1901 I was leaving
England for America I went to see her. She said to me: “I want you to
reach that birthday book?” I did so and turning to February 5 I saw in the
handwriting I knew so well: “D.L. Moody, Psalm 91.” Then Marianne Adlard
said to me: “He wrote that for me when he came to see me in 1872, and I
prayed for him every day till he went home to God.” Continuing, she
said: “Now, will you write your name on your birthday page, and let me
pray for you until either you or I go home.” I shall never forget writing
my name in that book. To me the room as full of the Presence. I have
often thought of that hour in the rush of busy life, in the place of toil and
strain, and Marianne Adlard continued to do so until she went home, and it is
for this reason that to her memory in sincere love and admiration I have
dedicated this book. These are the labourers of force in the fields of
God. It is the heroes and heroines who are out of sight, and who labour in
prayer, who make it possible for those who are in sight to do their work and
win. The force of it to such as are called upon to exercise the ministry
can never be measured.

Marianne Adlard was “limited” in the sight of men; and as we read, she was a member of a church “yet into which even then she never came.” Stories like these are left to us as examples, to encourage us, to teach us that “our ways are not God’s ways; nor our thoughts God’s thoughts.” May we seek to do God’s will as He calls, not the way we think it should be. May we be open to His leading, not what we think we should be doing.

Dear LORD, may we fall madly in love with YOU. May we seek YOUR face. May we know YOU more. When YOU say go may we go, but when YOU say wait, may we wait. May we hear YOUR still small voice, that we may KNOW you and the power of YOUR resurrection and the fellowship of YOUR sufferings, being made conformable unto YOUR death. In Jesus Name – Amen.