Power of Prayer

I pray for a number of people.  My main prayer time is early in the morning during my prayer and meditation hour, but I may stop occasionally during the day and silently or out loud pray for someone.  I have a mental list of people I pray for that numbers around 30 or so, and I go through this list methodically, visualizing the person, and asking not for their healing, but for forgiveness of sins (it's Biblical).  I include myself.  
Recently I came to the realization that a majority of the people I pray for are healed, and I could take them off the list.  That's nice to know.  I don't take credit for their healing because I know it is Jesus Christ working through me.  I quickly added more people to the declining list.
I have found that as I pray for other people, I too am healed.  My cancer is in remission, but I suffer miserably from the side effects of treatment.  I want to be feeling well and I want it right now!  It was through one of the people I pray for, who also has cancer, that I learned that I must be patient.  Stop fighting.  I needed to hear that, and the message was delivered to me, loud and clear.  Praise God!     
Something happened that has never happened before.  A friend of mine was ill and I told him I would pray for him.  He asked me NOT to pray for him, that he only wanted “knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out.”  I was a little taken aback.  No one has ever asked me not to pray for them.  But I had to honor his request.  However, things changed, what I'm not sure.  I think his diagnosis was worse than he originally thought.  He reversed himself and asked me to pray for him.  Hallelujah!  I did and his diagnosis was once again changed to something relatively minor.  God is so good.
Then there was the time I was so miserable from the side effects of treatment that I was just about at my wits end.  I didn't want to call someone and ask them to pray for me because I felt like I was becoming a pest.  I was almost to the point of, like Job, asking God, “Why me?”  But I knew better.  I did ask God to help me, I was so sick.  My phone buzzed.  It was a text from a woman I pray for.  She needed money.  I agreed to give it to her.  I immediately felt better.  It was a miracle.  In helping someone else, I helped myself.  Once again, praise God!

From my morning meditation book I learned that whenever I'm critical of someone, which is way too often, it is a sign that I need to stop and pray for them.  I have been practicing that lately.  Whenever I catch myself being critical, I stop and pray for their forgiveness of sins.  This has really curtailed my criticism.   
Another friend of mine was in the hospital.  Ginnie and I went to see him.  He was in really bad shape and it made me thankful for the health that I do have.  He was supposed to have heart surgery the next day.  I waited a day or so, and tried calling him.  He didn't answer and his voice-mail box was full.  I tried several more times.  The same thing.  In my morning prayers, when I prayed for his forgiveness of sins, I also asked to be told how he was, or if he'd passed away.  I didn't know anyone who knew him. 
On the day that I asked to be told how he was, I received a long text from him saying he was in Hospice and was being transferred to a nursing home.  Thank you, God.  Ginnie and I will go see him when he is so situated. 
If you need prayers, or know someone who does, lemme know.  I enjoy my time of prayer and meditation.  I can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, answering prayers and healing. 
“Your sins are forgiven.”  “Stand up and walk.”
Have a good story?  Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526 or email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com.  Curt is available for public speaking.