Diligence

"....because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Hebrews 11:6

Let me tell you a story about a friend I met four years ago. I had just recovered from 9 days in the hospital and 3 weeks a recuperation after the recurrence of cancer to the bone and chest wall. I was up and around and about to run errands when the phone rang that early spring morning. I answered it hesitantly, thinking it might be that morning round of irritating telemarketers. I could not have been more wrong.

"Kathy, you don't know me but my name is Nancy and I live two doors down from you."
(She had moved into her house the year before, but we had never gotten to know each other)
"I am having a prayer group this morning and the Lord is telling me that you are supposed to be here." Wow. Think of the courage that it took her to make that phone call. She risked having a neighbor thinking she was some kind of kook or fanatic and she called anyway. She stepped out on faith and obeyed the Lord and changed both of our lives.

I was dumbstruck by her phone call. Not because I thought she was off the wall, but because I knew she was right on the money. I knew that God was speaking to her about me and I knew I had to go to her house that day, despite all my errands. I knew this because the day before I had been mailed a set of healing scriptures from a colleague and one of those scriptures was James 5:14. As I read that scripture "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord." , I asked God, "Now where am I going to find anyone to do that for me?? I could not imagine anyone at the church I was attending at the time laying on hands and anointing with oil. And in one split second of clarity, one lightning bolt of understanding, I knew that Nancy's phone call and her prayer group was His answer to my question of the day before.

So I went. And so began the friendship that allowed me to be prayed for by holy, spiritual, and fervent women. They did lay hands on me and they did anoint me with oil and their prayers have been powerful and effective. And Nancy has been here with me through all my ups and downs, victories and setbacks. Praying without ceasing, faithful in her cause. She knows that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him and she seeks Him on my behalf everyday.
Even though we rarely see one another, I know she stands in the gap for me all the time. She is an overcomer, just like me. She has witnessed my miracles and claims and proclaims them with absolute belief.

There is no price to put on a praying and faithful friend. I would hope that everyone I know has at least one. My strength comes from many places and one of those places is from friends like Nancy who, without question, stand with me and believe that God is alive, God is powerful, and He does reward us for earnestly seeking Him. She is among many other wonderful things, the embodiment of diligence.