The Power of My Mother’s Prayer

By Shanter Alexander

It was December 2003. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was lying there on a hospital bed feeling like my life was almost over. I could not even move. Every joint in my body felt like it was on fire. I had never felt so much pain.

I had been battling Dengue fever with temperatures of more than 100°F (37.7 C) every day for about two weeks. Each day I grew weaker and weaker. My mom came early in the morning and covered my body with towels dipped in ice-cold water. I was so miserable. And what hurt the most was seeing the pain in her eyes as she fought back the tears. I saw sadness in my father’s eyes too.

One day, as my mother looked on, my father held my limp body in his arms and begged me (his only daughter) to fight and not give up. I then heard my mother boldly speak the Bible promise: “You shall not die but live to declare the works of the Lord!” (Ps. 118:17)

There is an inexplicable shift that occurs in the atmosphere when parents intercede on behalf of their children. I still get goose bumps as I recall this experience. I can’t even explain it, but I felt such hope. I remember praying in my heart, “Lord if you don’t heal me for my sake, please heal me in answer to my parents’ prayers! Jesus, please answer their prayer.”

Ellen White once wrote the following regarding the power of a mother’s prayers: “It is impossible to estimate the power of a praying mother’s influence. She acknowledges God in all her ways. She takes her children before the throne of grace and presents them to Jesus, pleading for His blessing upon them. The influence of those prayers is to those children as ‘a wellspring of life.’ These prayers, offered in faith, are the support and strength of the Christian mother. To neglect the duty of praying with our children is to lose one of the greatest blessings within our reach, one of the greatest helps amid the perplexities, cares, and burdens of our lifework.”

This quote is long, but it’s so powerful, I must let Sister White continue:

“The power of a mother’s prayers cannot be too highly estimated. She who kneels beside her son and daughter through the vicissitudes of childhood, through the perils of youth, will never know till the judgment the influence of her prayers upon the life of her children. If she is connected by faith with the Son of God, the mother’s tender hand may hold back her son from the power of temptation, may restrain her daughter from indulging in sin. When passion is warring for the mastery, the power of love, the restraining, earnest, determined influence of the mother, may balance the soul on the side of right” (Adventist Home, p. 266).

My mother encouraged me that day to ask for God’s healing and she repeated over and over again in my ears, “You shall not die but live to declare the works of God!” She said every day afterward until my wounded spirit began to believe and I, too, began to declare: “I shall not die but live to declare the glory of God!”

There is power in confessing the Word of God. And there is power when a mother prays. My healing in that experience is testimony of God’s grace in answer to the faithful prayers of my parents.

Shanter Alexander, a native of St. Lucia, an island in the West Indies, is a psychologist who lives and works in Michigan. She has been involved with prayer leadership both locally and in division events across the ocean.

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World Church Prayer Requests

January 6 - 13, 2019

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Ten Days of Prayer, which runs January 9-19, 2019. Please pray earnestly that many people all over the world will choose to be part of this powerful Ten Days of Prayer focusing on cultivating a deeper experience with the Lord. To learn more, visit: www.tendaysofprayer.org

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray that many lives will be changed during this 10 Days of Prayer, and that people will truly discover what it means to have a deeper experience with the Lord through prayer and the Word.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for countries throughout Asia and the Middle East that are experiencing great religious persecution. Pray that believers will be faithful and stand true to God’s Word. Pray that God will send more laborers into these fields.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the Total Member Involvement activities scheduled for the country of India June 14-30, 2019. Pray that many souls will be reached with the gospel.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the General Conference Youth Ministries Department as they prepare to mobilize Pathfinders and other young adults all over the world to preach at 100,000 different sites for Total Youth Involvement. This begins March 2019. #TYI19