The Power of Prayer

When I was growing up, I heard the claim that every woman has an overwhelming desire to become a mother. I have always loved babies and admired moms packing their babies into strollers and taking them for walks. I longed for the day I would also become a mom, but I chose to get married after I had finished my schooling.

Thankfully, my husband-to-be was patient enough to wait for me. So, at twenty-nine, I got married and imagined life would unfold according to our plans and timing. Our dream life of raising four children would now become a reality. Not so! We had taken life for granted and did not realize even conception required God’s green light.

We thought He would just flow along with our plans, and all would be well. Well, God had a different plan. The months turned to years, and the years to almost a decade, and still no pregnancy. We followed all the advice and sought medical treatment to conceive but to no avail. As the years went by, the frustration intensified, and we struggled to watch other parents rearing and loving their children. Thankfully, our merciful Father provided us with nieces and nephews to babysit and love like our own, even to this day.

When my parents experienced a traffic accident and could not attend church, my dad begged us to go to the altar and pray on his behalf.

God knows our every need and desire even before we ask, and that particular Sabbath, when we stepped into the church, a head deacon invited us to participate in a special prayer ceremony in which petitions were written and inserted in a prayer box.

We both wrote out my dad’s request and also added our request for a child. We later shared how we had poured out our hearts to God, and throughout the service, I was like Hannah, who went up to the tabernacle and prayed with great weeping (1 Samuel 1:10).

While we still sought medical assistance, this time our son was conceived and born nine months later to a very grateful family. We formed a big circle at the hospital and offered prayers of thanksgiving. Two years later, God doubled His blessing, and a beloved daughter was born to us. My friends, let us keep trusting and knocking like the persistent woman in Luke 18:1–18.

Caren Henry Broaster