In Straight Paths

by Georgia McCain

  * * * * *

  All of us realize how hard it is to proclaim the praises of God when our heart is seemingly breaking; the devil is pressing in and our prayers seem to rebound and smother us instead of reaching through to God. We are prone to shed tears of self-pity and wonder why "all these things are against us," when we have faithfully striven to do our best. God has appointed praise in such an hour as this to force open the gates of Heaven and obtain an answer to our prayers. Only a heart filled with the Blessed Holy Spirit can praise God in its darkest hour. This is impossible with a carnal heart full of self. But our God can put a song of praise and a shout of victory in a sanctified heart that's crushed with heartache, grief and pain. Praise His sweet and Holy Name!

  When the Moabites and the Ammonites had set themselves in battle array against Jehoshaphat in II Chronicles, chapter twenty, the Word says, "He feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast." He cried out to God, "O our God ... we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee." God answered, "Be not afraid nor dismayed ... for the battle is not yours but God's ... ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still and see the salvation of God."

  Jehoshaphat believed and trusted God and rose early in the morning and went forth to meet the enemy. He appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the beauty of Holiness, and when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the enemy and they were smitten. If Jehoshaphat had failed to believe God and had failed to praise Him, the enemy would have, no doubt, prevailed, but the victory was won that day when they began to sing and to praise. If it worked in Jehoshaphat's day, it will work today. Praise God!

  In the old Philippian jail, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises at midnight. They prayed first and God enabled them to sing praises even though their feet were fast in stocks and their backs were bleeding from unjust beatings. A great earthquake served God's purpose this time to deliver His children. When God would deliver Peter from prison, He sent an angel, who quietly touched him and led him out with no one except Peter aware of his presence, but this time a different method was needed. There were eyes that needed to be opened and nothing but calamity could do it, so "there was a great earthquake" which shook the foundations of the prison and all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. Glory! The old jailor would never have fallen down, trembling and saying, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved," had Paul and Silas failed to pray and sing praises at the midnight hour. All of us would like to feel the angel's touch and hear his sweet voice in answer to prayer, but what about the earthquake? That calamity that touches our lives to shake people awake? Are we yielded to that?

  Our prayers may still be unanswered, our health may be broken, the arm of flesh has failed, money has taken wings, the world situation is alarming, we're separated from our dearest loved ones, and it seems our heart will be crushed with its load, but let us fall down before God and tell our loving Saviour that we're still trusting Him, that He knows what's best for our lives and what it will take to get us to Heaven and as our trust and praise and adoration reaches the throne, the storm cloud will roll back as a scroll, and we will be enabled by His grace to pray clear through and obtain an answer to our prayer, by faith. Hallelujah!

  How Much Does a Prayer Weigh?

  The only man I ever heard of who tried to weigh one still does not know.

  At one time he thought he did. That was when he owned a little grocery store on the West Side. It was just after the World War. A tired looking woman came into the store and asked him for enough food to make up a dinner for her children. He asked her how much she could afford to spend.

  She answered, "My husband was killed in the war. I have nothing to offer but a little prayer."

  This man confessed that he was not very sentimental in those days. A grocery could not be run like a bread line. So he said, "Write it on a piece of paper," and turned to his business.

  To his surprise, the woman plucked a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him over the counter. She said, "I did that during the night watching over my sick baby."

  The grocer took the piece of paper before he could recover from his surprise, and then regretted having done so, for what could he do with it--what could he say?

  Then an idea suddenly came to him. He placed the paper, without even reading the prayer, on his scales. He said, "We shall see how much food this is worth."

  To his astonishment, the scales would not go down when he put a loaf of bread on the other side. To his confusion and embarrassment, it would not go down even though he kept adding on food--anything he could lay his hands on quickly, because people were watching him.

  He tried to be gruff and he was making a bad job of it. His face got red, and it made him angry to be flustered. Finally, he said, "Well, that's all the scales will hold anyway. Here's a bag. You'll have to pack it yourself. I'm busy."

  With what sounded like a gasp or a sob, she took the bag and began packing the food, wiping her eyes on her sleeve every time her arm was free to do so.

  He tried not to look, but he could not help seeing that he had given her a pretty big bag, and that it was not quite full. So he tossed a large cheese down on the counter. But he did not say anything, nor did he see the timid smile of grateful understanding which glistened her moist eyes at this final betrayal of the grocer's crusty exterior.

  When the woman had gone, he went to the scales, scratching his head and shaking it in puzzlement. Then he found the solution. The scales were broken. But as the years passed by he often thought of it and wondered if that really was the solution. Why did the woman have the prayer already written to satisfy his unpremeditated demand? Why did she come in at exactly the right time when the scales was broken? What confused him so that he did not notice it, and kept piling on food, with only a scrap of paper in the weight pan? He had felt like a fool and hardly knew what he was doing.

  Well, faith is a strange thing anyway. And prayer is a strange thing.

  The grocer never saw the woman again. And come to think of it, he had never seen her before, either. Yet for the rest of his life, he remembered her better than any other customer.

  He knew it had not been just his imagination, for he still had the slip of paper upon which the woman's prayer had been written:

  "Please, Lord, give us our daily bread."

  Joseph Sadony

  (This was taken from the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist paper. Used by permission.)

  "Ask and Receive"

  "I remember looking out the window at Cabrini Hospital, (Alexandria, Louisiana). It was a beautiful day in which you would think nothing could ever go wrong in your life. It was then I realized I had cancer."

  That beautiful day was nineteen years ago, but the Marksville farmer lived to see many other beautiful days despite being sent home from a cancer research center to die.

  "That day my world came to an end," Cormier told the editor of a religious paper, THE GOOD NEWS, (from which I quote by permission of Mr. Cormier, whom I talked to recently).

  Until then, the Catholic farmer thought nothing could possibly go wrong with him. He was thirty-five years old, having a "good time" and doing well financially.

  Then in October 1973, he was out harvesting rice when he noticed a little gland that was swollen--one of his lymph glands. He didn't pay much attention to it, but his wife told him he should go to the doctor.

  He finally decided to see a doctor when he finished harvesting, and the doctors observed the swollen gland for several months before deciding to do a biopsy.

  "I didn't think too much about it when the results were delayed a day. I figured something was wrong," Cormier said. "The doctor said the lymph gland they had removed was malignant and it was serious."

  That was the beautiful January day in 1974 that began a change in Cormier's life. The cancer sent him on a journey to
Houston, Texas to find a cure, but the journey ended at his home in Marksville, Louisiana where he discovered how big God really is.

  "That day my world came to an end," Cormier said. Because he really didn't know God at the time, he went to the Catholic Church all the time but never really trusted God for anything. Cormier put his trust in medicine to find a cure for his cancer.

  "They sent me to the best doctor Houston had, a specialist in cancer of the lymph system," he said. Cormier was put through a week-long series of tests, some so painful he would never do them again.

  "I realize now that was the only way God could get my attention to look up to Him."

  The tests showed cancer in the spleen, which was removed along with lymph nodes in the chest area. However, the doctors told Cormier there were probably more cancer cells still in his body and he would need at least twenty cobalt treatments. He was given twenty treatments from his waist area down.

  Cormier was relieved at the end of the twentieth treatment, thinking everything would be fine. But the doctor informed him he would need eighteen treatments on his upper body.

  He was sent home before beginning the eighteen treatments, to let his body rest. While at home, his wife took him to a home prayer meeting even though he didn't want to go.

  "I was sitting there with cancer, my wife wanted me to get prayed for, but I wouldn't do it," Cormier said. "After we got home I shook my finger at her and said, "Don't you ever again ask me to go to those stupid prayer meetings. I don't need anybody to pray for me, I can pray for myself."

  Cormier took the series of cobalt treatments and was told he had a seventy-five percent chance of recovery. It was the middle of April when the doctor sent him home.

  After just nine days at home, Cormier came down with a fever running 103 to 104.

  He was immediately taken back to Houston, where the doctor discovered his liver had dropped six inches. The doctor told his wife it was so serious he didn't think Cormier would live long enough to make it across the street to the hospital.

  Cormier made it across the street to the hospital, where liver scans and other tests were run to determine if the organ was completely contaminated with cancer. Doctors said just one square inch of the liver was functioning.

  "I figured they could fix that by killing the cancer cell and putting blood in," Cormier said. "But they told my wife there was nothing else they could do.

  "She signed a release for them to try anything. Since it was a cancer research center, they decided to try chemotherapy. That made me even sicker than the treatments.

  "Finally, they prepared my wife as to how I would die," Cormier said. "My liver was to erupt and I was to hemorrhage to death."

  Cormier wanted to go home and see his three small children, so arrangements were made to fly him back. Everything had been packed when the doctor informed him he couldn't leave since his blood count had dropped so low.

  "I had been sick up until this, but I had never been in pain. That afternoon the pain started and got worse each day," Cormier said. "Pain shots didn't help.

  "One morning I went to the bathroom with help from the orderly and when I sat down it was like opening a faucet. Blood started gushing out of me. It was gushing out of my mouth. That was the last I remember."

  Cormier came to, as doctors and nurses were working to keep him alive. He was put in intensive care.

  Finally, after getting all the blood back, he again asked to go home. He had lost all of his hair, and weight had dropped from one hundred thirty-five to eighty-five pounds. "I knew I was dying," Cormier said. "I hated to look in the mirror."

  Permission was given to fly on a charted plane. Cormier felt good to be home, lying in his own bed, looking over the cards from friends, and some people he thought were enemies.

  "I happened to look and there was a little tract by my bed," he said. "I picked it up and started reading John 16:23-24: 'I tell you the truth, the Father will give you anything you ask in my name. Ask and receive that your joy may be full.' I didn't know much about God, but I did know one thing - that He did not lie.

  "I knew that God's word was truthful--that He would do anything I ask in His name. I knew I had to put God's Kingdom first. There were things in my life that would have to change.

  "I didn't know how to pray, so I just started talking to God. First, I said I had never sought God, or tried to live right. I know I've done wrong.

  "The devil had put a lot of hatred in my heart. I asked forgiveness and told God I didn't want to hate anymore. When I got through crying out to God, I said I know God what You say in Your Word is true. I've had the best doctors, they can't save my life. They sent me home to die. So, now I ask you, God, if You don't take hold of my life, I'm going to die. So, now I ask you God, in the name of Jesus, take this cancer out of my body. I'll change my life and live for You."

  After crying out to God, Cormier went into a peaceful sleep. As his wife helped him to the breakfast table the next morning, he looked out the window with a new outlook.

  "I didn't know it then, but I know now I had been born again. God had come into my heart," Cormier explained.

  From that day, Cormier began a steady improvement. In a couple of weeks, he started to walk outside.

  "I walked outside, struggling. I couldn't even hold a pen to write my name at the time," Cormier said. "It was a great task just to walk."

  The devil tried to discourage Cormier when he began walking, telling him, "You think you're healed. Look how you're struggling and hurting."

  "I didn't know but two promises of God at the time," Cormier remembered. "All I knew was that God said anything I ask in His name." He hung onto that promise.

  Cormier kept improving, and when Houston called his wife twice a week to check up on him she kept telling them how well he was doing. But the doctors thought she was just building herself up with false hope.

  Finally, Cormier had enough strength to sit in a boat and cast his fishing rod. "That's what 1 was doing one day when Houston called the house, fishing," Cormier recalled. "They couldn't believe it."

  The doctors wanted him to come to Houston so they could check him out. It was August; his hair was growing back and he was back to his normal weight.

  "When the doctor (at the hospital in Houston) saw me walking down the hall, his eyes got so big, like he was seeing a miracle," Cormier said. "He was." The doctors started probing around me and decided to run some tests. I agreed because I knew God healed me, but wanted them to know it.

  "After the tests, he came to my room and pulled up a chair. He said, 'I just don't understand it. Your liver is just as normal as mine.' I said, 'Praise God! You know, Doc, God healed me.' "

  Chester Cormier

  Louisiana

  Note: I talked to Brother Cormier by telephone recently, and he told me he had not had a reoccurrence of cancer in the nineteen years since God healed him. He works for the Post Office delivering mail in the LeCompte and Cheneyville, Louisiana area. Praise God for His wonderful healing power! Author.

  Money Provided in Answer to Prayer

  I needed twenty-five dollars for a car payment. I stayed up one night and prayed through over it. Next morning, I got everything ready to mail and when I stepped up to the Post Office a man whom I had never seen, met me from the opposite direction and asked if I was the minister. I said, "Yes," and he handed me twenty-five dollars saying, "You are the man the Lord showed me when I was praying last night." A very healthy "Thank the Lord and you," rolled out of my mouth.

  Another marvel took place when a sister-in-law died. Upon receiving the word, I went to the church to pray. The depression was upon us so we had no money to buy gas to drive the ninety miles. The Spirit whispered, "Go, the Lord will provide." We made ready and got into the car. A rap came on the car window and a neighbor gave us some money. She left and a man came and gave us some more.

  When we arrived at Kane, the Methodist pastor heard of our being there. He as
ked if I would preach for two nights as they had announced a revival and the evangelist couldn't be there for the first two nights. They gave me an offering; so our needs were supplied with some to spare.

  Rev. Claude Eshelman

  Two Babies Had Died the Day Before With What Our Little David Had

  After three daughters, the last weighing nine pounds, nine and one half ounces, the Lord blessed us with a little boy, which only weighed two pounds and nine ounces. He was put in the intensive care unit which was called the R.I.C.N. unit. It was a special care unit for premature babies. My wife and I went every day to the hospital to be with our boy. My wife would go by herself and be there when I got off from work and would come and join her. The girls were then in their teens and would stay with their grandparents.

  One day my wife and I went to the hospital and we sensed that something was wrong. (By this time, little David had been in the R.I.C.N. Unit fifty-six days.) Upon inquiring of our son's condition, we were told his intestines were dying. He had seven symptoms out of nine, the X-rays showed. We had seen two other babies die the day before with what our little David had. My wife and I were not Christians at the time. As we left the hospital that night, we were very low. Going up the highway we talked very little, The devil whispered to me that God owed me no favors. I knew this was right for I was raised around a Holiness church and I wasn't saved. When we arrived home and were getting ready to retire for the night, as soon as I touched the bed, something said to me, "Call Sister Nadine Fetterman (now Mrs. Brian Covert) and have her go and anoint David." I obeyed the impression and called her and she told me she would go in the morning for it was now twelve o'clock. I hung the phone up and a voice said that she was to go right then. I was dialing her back and at the same time, she was dialing me to say she felt she should go right then. My wife and Sister Nadine went that night, and she said that when she prayed and anointed David, that a shock went out of her arm and she felt the Lord had touched him.

  David had tubes in his nose and he would pull them out. The nurses would put them back and he would pull them out again, so the next time he did it, the nurse said, "Boy, you're on your own now." The doctor X-rayed David and could find no trace of his intestine dying. He could not understand what happened, but we knew that God had healed him. We brought David home when he reached four pounds and twelve ounces. He is now in the seventh grade (January, '93) and is doing well. Thank God, He has been wonderful to me.

  David Poorman

  Pennsylvania

  Though the Poormans were not saved at this time, God kept His hand on them and they were saved not long afterwards. Their daughter, Elizabeth and family lived in Central Louisiana for several years, and when they would come visit their family, the Poormans would come to our church. I have learned to love and appreciate them, and feel they are some of God's choice saints. Read his testimony, "Though My Dad Was Dead, I Know God Answered His Prayers." Author.

  The Lord Hath Heard My Supplication: The Lord Will Receive My Prayer

  On August 15,1987, during the night, a tremendous burden settled down upon my heart. Though I couldn't discern the reason, yet I knew God had a specific cause for it. I felt distressed and began to desperately call on God to reveal Himself to me. Two days later, on Monday morning, I arose early and went to prayer. Opening the Bible, my eyes fell on a portion of Scripture which spoke to my heart concerning the burden. God showed me that it was for a young man, a close friend of the family, who was not a Christian, and God was trying to get to his heart. After God revealed the burden, I spoke to the young man as I could, prayed with him and read to him what God gave me for him, from the Bible.

  I spent much time in prayer and fasting, beseeching God to answer prayer. Day after day, I prayed. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, but the burden still remained and I could not seem to prevail with God, though He spoke words of encouragement to my heart and admonished me to keep holding on and not to faint in prayer. I searched my heart to see if anything in me was hindering God from answering, for at times the burden would be so heavy that I could only groan and weep before God. He brought me down lower and lower at His feet. At times it seemed as if the devil was turned loose to defeat my prayers from getting through to God. Things would look so dark and hopeless and seemed to be going in reverse. I read every book on prayer that I could get, and over and over, I would read about God placing burdens on people and as they faithfully prayed, God would lift the burden and answer prayer. Almost always, it was an immediate answer, and yet I had prayed for months, and could not seemingly get an answer. I would grow discouraged at times, and always the devil was on hand to accuse me, saying if my heart was right with God, that He would surely answer for me as He had for others. There were days when I could not gain any ground, but fought hand to hand conflicts with the old accuser of the brethren for hours on end. I would claim promise after promise, write them down and hold them up before God.

  One Sunday afternoon, I went to my bedroom, and cried out to God in anguish of spirit, "Oh, God, are You hearing my prayers?" In an unmistakable, still, small voice, He spoke to my heart, "The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer" Psalm 6:9. I felt so calm and peaceful and just knew that God was going to answer my prayer immediately for had He not said in John 5:14, 15, "if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him." But the answer still tarried. It did not immediately come to pass as I had read in the books. I thought "Oh, if only I could read just one incident where God delayed the answer even after giving the assurance that He had heard." I continued to pray and trust God. Later, I bought a book by Charles Finney entitled, "Answers to Prayer." Under a chapter entitled "Patience in Prayer," he recorded an incident much like my own experience. Though he had earnestly prayed about a certain situation, things grew worse instead of better. He was astounded that he couldn't break through to God. But finally the darkness gave way and God spoke "Yes" to his heart. A peace came to him as it had to me when God assured me He had heard. Just as I had, he expected an immediate answer, but it was months before he saw what he had believed for. I took fresh courage after reading this account and purposed to wait patiently for the answer that was sure to come.

  One year and some few days after God placed the burden on my heart, the blessed answer came. One year of waiting before God with a burdened heart. It seemed an eternity, but oh, how glad I am that I didn't give up. I'm so thankful I continued to wait when at times it was so dark and things seemed to get worse instead of better. I'm so glad God enabled me, by His grace, to hold on and keep believing. Not only did the young man whom I was burdened for, get saved, but two of my sons and their wives were also converted. It seemed we were in a continuous revival for many weeks. I remember during this time that I was walking the floor and groaning under a burden for my wayward children one Saturday afternoon. The next morning, the front door opened at church after the service had begun, and one of my sons, who had not been to church for several years, came in. He had two small children, one in each arm. He began to seek God, making restitutions even before he was saved. It wasn't long before he had plunged into the fountain. I remember him saying to me, "I don't know how I can possibly pay tithe, as I don't have any extra money, it takes all I make to live, but I'm going to pay tithes anyway." Not one time has he missed, at this writing, and God, somehow, stretched the nine-tenths to meet his obligations. His wife, also, turned to God and made many restitutions, some very hard to make. The following was printed in our daily newspaper.: