Lord I Lift This Friend To You
By the time I was moved out of the High Care into a normal ward, I was feeling a lot better but the wound on my stomach had become infected. So I had to stay an extra few days, and by now I could walk down slowly to the chapel in the hospital and pray, which I did a few times.
Across from me in the new ward was a man who had been in quite a serious motorbike accident. All he really wanted was to get out of hospital and back onto the bike! We got chatting, and he was going to a local bikers' church, which gave us lots to speak about.
When Hope is Shattered
When you're in hospital, you spend a lot of time waiting for your doctor to come and tell you what's going on. Well, the two of us in this ward were both waiting for our surgeon, Dr Magagula, to come update us. We were both hoping he would discharge us soon. Eventually he came, and my news was good news - I was doing better and could probably leave soon. But my friend's news was not good news - his wound was not getting better fast enough, and the doc wanted him to stay quite a while longer to heal up.
This really shattered my friend! I remember going across and praying with him when the doctor had left. But still He was distraught, and that afternoon I walked down to the chapel and wrote another song:
Lord I lift this friend to you now
You know him better than I know me
You know his body, mind and Spirit
You know exactly what he needs
Yes Lord I lift this friend to you now
I pray your healing hand of grace
To hold him safe and guard him fully
To reach and gently touch his face
Entrusting Others to God's Care
So many people had been praying for me, and I suppose there had been many in his community praying for him too. But I needed to write this song, expressing to God that I felt helpless and that I didn't know what I could do except pray for him.
Praying for somebody is really a matter of trust! You stand before God and entrust this person into God's hands. My chorus puts it this way:
Now I believe he’s in your care
Cradled gently, Lord you heard my prayer
Make him well Lord, make him whole
Heal his wounds Lord, heal his soul
I wonder if there's somebody who needs your prayer? If there's a friend who could benefit from you bringing them before the Lord in prayer?
Take the time to pray for people, and not just say you’ve prayed.
I hope that the words of this song will become your words of prayer, as you lift up a friend in need today.
