Some years ago a dear friend of mine told me her beloved grandmother had been diagnosed with cancer. She was crying to me and at some point I said, “I’ll pray for your grandmother. She’s going to be alright.” My friend, who had given up on God years ago after a series of disappointments and setbacks, gave me a look like, “Yeah, right. Like that will do any good.”

Well, I went home and prayed hard for my friend’s grandmother, asking God to heal this woman I had never met. For two weeks, I prayed night and day and would go to my local church and light candles for her during my lunch hour. At a certain point I stopped praying for no other reason than I got busy at work and home. But my friend called me a couple of days later to say that something amazing had happened. Doctors had done tests on her grandmother before her operation and they didn’t find a drop of cancer. They tested her twice and the results were the same. She was disease-free. My friend laughed and cried into the phone. “You were the only person that I know of who prayed for her. I think your prayers worked.”

I have no idea if my prayers helped in this situation. Only God heals. I do know, though, that I prayed my heart out and that my friend who had given up on God has now found God again.