Talking Out Of Turn

Bryan Chapell tells the story of Mae Gabriel, a woman who truly knew how to pray:

I once had the privilege of caring for a small, aging German lump of sugar named Mae Gabriel. Mae was in her late eighties. She still knew much of her German Bible and spent the day humming the hymns of her youth, though she could barely hear.

Mae lived alone in a two-room house on her son-in-law’s farm. Her prized possessions were a velvet leaf plant that had practically taken over kitchen, dusty photos of her family on a bedroom bureau, and a skunk that wandered out of the woods at dusk to eat scraps she put on a cracked dinner plate. In many ways you could consider Mae pitiable — even pathetic. But Mae Gabriel was a saint. She taught me as much about prayer as anyone I have ever known.

During one of my visits, Mae told me of the death of her husband. Frank had died twenty years earlier, but when she spoke of him, her eyes still brimmed with tears. She told me about the day the doctors said Frank had only a short time left. On that day Mae said she prayed over and over that God would heal Frank. “I didn’t want to be alone,” she said with a smile.

Then she told me how she prayed.

“First, I prayed that God’s will would be done,” she said with a determined nod of her head. “Then I prayed again and again that the Lord would heal my husband. But I also prayed that if he needed to take Frank, my God would give me the strength to bear it.”

Then in the midst of Mae’s tears, a beautiful smile lit up her whole face as though her heart were shining through. She simply said, “And he did. God gave me the strength to bear it.”

Mae prayed backwards. She prayed first for the priorities of her God — that his will would be done. Then she prayed her desires. She boldly and persistently petitioned for her husband. Again and again this little woman knocked against the door of heaven without hesitation or shame. She listed her specific wants, but she also voiced the deeper desire for God to do his will. She did not doubt or fear the hand of the heavenly Father, who had given his own Son to be her eternal Savior.

By praying in this holy, humble, and trusting way, Mae knew that whatever God chose to do would be best, not only for this world but also for eternity. Mae’s knowledge of God’s nature shaped her prayer, sustained her faith, and brought her strength for her time of sorrow. She simply prayed as Jesus taught, and she gained the peace he promised.

(Excerpted from his book, Praying Backwards.)