Story: A crying student

This story is one that happened many times on campus, during the years I worked at the university.

I went through a phase where every morning I would ask Jesus if he wanted me to eat breakfast, or fast for someone’s freedom.  I was following Isaiah 58 to start my day.

Well one morning, I heard the thought to not eat,  so I skipped breakfast and got ready and went to work.

Ileana and I both were on campus that day, and happened to be walking through the main walk way in the center of campus.

As we walked past all the buildings, we saw a student with her head down.  She was holding back the tears.  It didn’t look like she had anywhere particular to go.

Something must have just happened and she was escaping away to a safe place to cry.

In this case we both felt from Jesus, that this was the person we were looking for.  Ileana approached and asked her if we could pray for her.  She said yes.

Our confidence had started in the morning.  If Jesus initiates a fast, there is a guarantee He will take action.  If I initiate a fast on my own, there is hope but no guarantee.

The girl was expecting us to interrogate her with questions to find out why she was crying, but we just prayed softly next to her so she could hear us and no one else.

She was amazed that we had the boldness to just pray without any information.  We prayed what Jesus put in our minds to pray, and of course, Jesus knew what she needed to hear.

She was caught off guard.  She stood upright and wiped her face, and looked at us again.  Her gaze said, “Who are these people? How did they know my struggle without asking me?”

Jesus was willing to trust us with personal information, because we were in pursuit of the same thing Jesus was pursuing.

He gave us the words to pray, and wanted the girl to be set free from what was holding her down.

We asked her what year in college she was in, and she said she was a senior.  I asked her if anyone had ever prayed directly with her during her time at the university.

She confirmed that we were the first.  Somehow she had managed to go to a christian university and not have anyone pray with her directly for her needs.