Often in Scripture, the Lord tells us to recall the wonders He has done. We so easily forget God’s faithfulness, and it builds up our faith to remember the marvels He has worked in our lives. I was recently reading in our archives a letter from a woman who was recounting to Father Rick Thomas what happened after he prayed with her over the phone. I thought I would share some excerpts from her letter with you.
Dear Father Rick, …It really started getting bad a month ago. I felt completely exhausted all the time with shortness of breath. I would get chest pains occasionally, but I didn’t really think it was a heart problem because last March when I began to have chest pain…they took an EKG and said it was fine and that I had arthritis of the rib cage.
On Labor Day, I was in bed and oh I felt terrible. It was like my chest was in a vice. [Back to the hospital] they put me in ICU immediately. [After 3 days] they let me go home but said I couldn’t stay alone. They set up an appointment for a stress test and a heart monitor. Even with the medication and doing absolutely nothing, I still kept getting chest pains.
When I went for the stress test, I had only gone a quarter of the first phase of it when I fainted. The cardiologist made arrangements for me to go the hospital to do a cardiac catheterization. He told me to be prepared to stay there for open-heart surgery. He had gone over all my records and said there was no time to lose. He felt that I would need to have a bypass done. Then I called you. [Father Thomas prayed with her on the phone asking for the Lord to heal her.]
Monday morning they did the cardiac cath. It took 2 hours through the groin, and the doctor told me, “We can’t find anything – no blockage, nothing.” I just said, “Thank you, Jesus. Praise you, God!” He asked, “What did you say?” And I repeated it. I told him, “It’s the power of prayer.”
They decided to go in through my arm and induce the heart into spasms. That took another 2 hours, and they found nothing! I told them, “Jesus has healed me.” They just smiled and said nothing. I had absolutely no pain through the whole procedure.
The doctor came in to see me after, and he was totally baffled. I had no more pain, Father Rick, and they took me off all medication. He told me he would be late in the morning coming in to discharge me because he wanted to go over everything again. I told him again, “It’s the power of prayer. Jesus healed me.”
He came in the next morning at 10:45 and said, “I went over everything, and your heart is perfectly normal.”
I went to see him [some weeks later for a follow-up appointment]. He asked me how I was feeling, and I told him I was fine. “No pain?” I told him no. He took my blood pressure, and it was fine. Then he told me, “I went over everything again yesterday. I still couldn’t find a thing.” I said, “Doctor, I told you Jesus healed me.” He looked at me and smiled and said, “Maybe you’re right.”