I enjoy it when Karen's Korner readers share things. Kim Marker sent this to me earlier this week (in part).

It was from Mary Southerland titled "The Prayer of a Righteous Woman"; telling about Corrie ten Boom who landed in a Nazi prison camp with her sister Betsie for helping Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust:

"While imprisoned at the concentration camp, Corrie tells the story of the time she had a terrible cold. She told her sister how much she just wished she had a handkerchief. Betsie suggested that Corrie pray for one. Corrie laughed at that ridiculous idea. Why would God be concerned about something so trivial as a handkerchief?

"But Betsie prayed, 'Lord, you see my sister Corrie has a very bad cold, and in Jesus' name, I ask you today for a handkerchief for her. Amen.'

"Shortly after that Corrie heard someone call out her name. She looked out the window of the barracks where she saw a friend of hers, also a prisoner, who worked in the hospital at Ravensbruck.

"'Here,' her friend said. 'Take this ! I'm bringing you a little present.' She pressed it into Corrie's hand.

"'I opened the little package,' said Corrie. 'and it was a handkerchief!'

"'How did you know I needed a handkerchief? Did you know I have a cold?' Corrie asked.

"'No,' said her friend. 'I was sewing handkerchiefs from an old piece of sheet, and there was a voice in my heart that said, 'Bring a handkerchief to Corrie ten Boom!'

"That little hanky, made from an old piece of a sheet, was a message out of the Heavens to me!' Corrie said. 'It told me that there is a Heavenly Father who hears one of his children pray for an impossible, small thing; a handkerchief. And the Heavenly Father says to one of His other children, 'Bring a handkerchief to Corrie ten Boom!'

Southerland goes on to say:  "Prayer isn't a religious exercise. It isn't a holy vending machine and does not require us to jump through a certain number of hoops in order for God to hear and respond.

"Prayer is the declaration of our total and utter dependence on God. When we pray, we are telling God that we are desperate for Him. We are saying 'yes' to whatever the minute, day, or future holds.....even before we know what that may be..

The Bible verse she included:  "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength," written by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:25.

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