There is a Living God

A tense atmosphere permeated a Chinese city. One could literally feel the enmity against the sole remaining missionary and the small group of Christians.

Three times on this particular day, the people had been summoned to public meetings at which the same high government official always spoke. It was clear to everyone that he wanted to incite his audience against the Christians by all means.

The following night, the missionary awoke to someone calling her name. She saw a faint glimmer of light coming from a small lamp. Who was standing there? It was the man who had so spitefully raged against her three times the previous day! Had he come to arrest her and take her to prison? Was her life in danger? Such thoughts assailed her as she strode out into the garden toward him. But then, to her greatest surprise, she heard the man say, “Missionary, come and help me. My little son is dying!”

She quickly took her bag of medicines and rushed to follow the father to the boy’s bedside. It immediately became clear to her that the child was suffering from severe pneumonia and that his heart could give out at any moment. She knew there was nothing more she could do for this young life except to pray for him. For that, she wanted to be alone. So she turned to the father and asked to be left alone. She would call him back in if it became urgent.

The next morning, the young boy was still alive. With tears in his eyes, the father said: “Missionary, my son is in your hands.”

“My hands are only powerless human hands. They can do nothing here,” the missionary replied. “Unless God’s hands perform a miracle, we cannot save this young life. His heart is too weak. But may we pray for your child?”

“My son is in your hands. Do as you think best.”

The missionary hurried to the chapel and found some brothers and sisters of the congregation gathered there and told them what had happened. Immediately, the whole congregation went on their knees and asked the Lord to heal the little boy and prove to the official that there is a living God. While the missionary continued to do everything in her power to help the child through appropriate medication, some fasted and prayed.

After four days, the little boy had recovered enough that his father could be told that the danger was over. This turned the former enemy into a friend of the congregation.

A few days later, another official appeared at the mission station and told the missionary that he also had a three-year-old boy who was seriously ill. He himself had worked in a hospital a few years ago, but neither he nor others were able to help the little boy. The official whose son had recently been so miraculously healed was an old friend of his and had told him how the healing had happened. Would the missionary be willing to help his child as well?

The missionary assured him that she herself could not help but would do everything that was in her power. The official and his son were accompanied by the grandmother, who the missionary immediately recognized as a child of God.

After a thorough examination, the missionary found that the little one’s heart was badly affected. She did not say a word about it but gave the stethoscope to the father and asked him to listen for himself. He listened to the heartbeats and exclaimed in despair, “O, his heart is beating so restlessly! There is no more hope!”

When the grandmother heard this, she cried out, “The boy said over and over again on the way here that he was going to the foreign lady and that she would pray to the Lord Jesus for him. Now we must pray!”

With that, she fell on her knees where the sick child lay. The missionary knelt beside her and laid her trembling hands on the boy, calling on the Lord and asking Him to glorify His name. What would it mean to this official if God would stretch out His hand and send the help he so desperately longed for! Afterward, the father took his son in his arms and went away. 

The next day, they all came back. Again, the missionary took the stethoscope and listened to the boy’s heart. Then, without a remark, she handed the device back to the father, just as she had done the day before. He listened, listened again, and then dropped the instrument and exclaimed, “Yes, there is a living God!”

The child’s heart was completely healed, and the missionary thanked the Lord who had so wonderfully delivered her from all fear and had so unmistakably shown those who would not believe in Him that He lives! 

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:14-15). 

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