Welcome, my friend, to today's word of encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

The devotional for today titled A Card and Prayer was written by Dave Brannon.

The recently widowed woman was growing concerned. To collect some vital funds from an insurance policy,

she needed key information about the accident that had taken her husband's life. She had talked to a

police officer who said he'd help her, but then she lost his business card. So she prayed,

pleading with God for help. A short time later,

she was at her church when she walked by a window and saw a card, the policeman's card, on a window-sill.

She had no idea how it got there, but she knew why. She took prayer seriously, and why not? Scripture says that God is listening

for our requests. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, Peter wrote in 1st Peter

Chapter 3, and his ears are attentive to their prayer. The Bible gives us examples of how God responded to prayer.

One is Hezekiah, the king of Judah, who became ill. He had even received word from Isaiah,

a prophet saying he was going to die. The king knew what to do. He prayed to the Lord.

Immediately, God told Isaiah to give the king this message from him. I have heard your prayer.

Hezekiah was granted 15 more years of life. God doesn't always answer prayers with things like a card on a window sill, but he assures us that when difficult situations arise, we don't face them alone. God sees us, and he's with us,

attentive to our prayers. Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is taken from the Old Testament

Book of 2nd Kings, Chapter 20, verses 1 through 7.

In those days, Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death.

The prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, went to him and said,

"'This is what the Lord says. Put your house in order, because you are going to die. You will not

recover.'

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. Remember, Lord, how I have walked

before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion

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