The year was 1957. The hospital where I was born required immediate payment before releasing a newborn to the parents. I've often wondered what happened to the kids whose family couldn't settle their account.
My parents were serving in pastoral ministry at the time and didn't have the $1,500 for my discharge. So, they prayed, asking God for help. On the final day of my hospital stay, dad checked the mail. Without knowing the specific need, a mentor of my dad's by the name of George Beauchamp Vick had mailed a check days earlier that miraculously was the exact amount required to pay the bill. In honor of that mentor and as a way to give praise to God, my parents gave me the first name, George. Why my parents chose to call me by my middle name, Stephen, is a story for another day.
After the birth of my brother Randy, my parents became missionaries and moved our family to South Korea. Over the span of 10 years, dad started 25 churches, a Bible college, and several schools for children. For a while we lived on an orphanage that farmed the land and raised a variety of animals for food. Life in Korea stretched our young family to its limits.
Whenever friends would visit from America, I knew we'd spend lots of time in prayer. Not the typical before meal or bedtime kinds of prayers, but the down on your knees, sincere, heart-felt, crying out for God's intervention kinds of prayers.
Some of my most vivid memories as a youngster are of bursting into my dad's office to play, only to find him on his knees praying for the needs of others, pleading for God's help, or seeking God's wisdom. He would often invite me to pray with him for as long as my limited attention span would allow.
I was birthed into an environment of prayer. I was surrounded by praying people throughout my formative years. But serious, sincere prayer didn't become my personal habit until my college years. In my discretionary time I began studying the Bible as well as reading books and biographies about prayer and praying Christians. Most important, I simply started praying.
Making time for prayer was difficult at first. But I was determined to experience the power of God that I'd observed in my parents and had read about in the lives of others. And I'm glad I didn't give up.
Bible verses like Philippians 4:6, kept me engaged in prayer: "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." One year I kept a journal of God's responses and recorded more than 1,200 specific answers to my requests.
Today I'm sold on the value of prayer. Not as a way of getting things I want, but as the way to communicate with God, discover his heart, and conform my life to his desires. Each time I experience God's power in prayer, the only appropriate response is to praise him from a heart overflowing with gratitude.
Would you like to experience the power of God? Start praying today.
