Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled Prayer Matters was written by Karen Pimpo.

Prayers for an upcoming brain scan. That my kids would come back to church. Comfort for Dave who lost his wife.

Our care ministry team receives a weekly list of prayer requests like these

so that we can pray and send each person a handwritten note.

The requests are overwhelming, and our efforts can feel small and unnoticed. That changed after I received

a heartfelt thank you card from Dave, the recently bereaved husband with a copy of his beloved

wife's obituary. I realized anew that prayer matters. Jesus modeled that we should pray earnestly, often, and with hopeful faith. His

time on earth was limited, but he prioritized getting away by himself to pray. Hundreds of years

earlier, the Israelite King Hezekiah learned this lesson too. In Second King Kings chapter 20, he was told that an illness would

soon take his life. In distress and weeping bitterly, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall

and prayed to the Lord. In this instance, God's response was immediate. He healed Hezekiah's

sickness, added 15 years to his life,

and promised to rescue the kingdom from an adversary. God answered his prayer not because

Hezekiah was living a good life, but for his own honor and for the sake of his servant,

David. We may not always receive what we ask for, but we can be

sure that God is working in and through every prayer. Today's our daily bread devotional

scripture reading is from 2nd Kings chapter 20 verses 1 through 6.

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

son of Amaz, 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, and have done what is good in your

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