Focus 40 Day 14

It Began with a Prayer Request

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

—John 13:34 niv

Veronica is a successful business lady in our congregation who continually shares the extravagant love of Christ with others. She has a marvelous gift of networking with people and boldly proclaims the gospel through her network. Her willingness to share the extreme love of Christ brings power to her sharing of the gospel. This past year through one of her network contacts, she was presented with a prayer request. The contact shared that she had a friend who had just given birth to her second child. It was a premature birth and the baby weighed only one and a half pounds. The life of baby Calen was in great jeopardy.

Veronica naturally agreed to pray for the baby. However, as she did, she was filled with great compassion for the mother of the newborn child. She found how to make contact with the mother and asked if she might come to the hospital to anoint and pray for the baby. Note that she had never met the mother. The mother willingly invited her to come and pray over baby Calen.

It was through this initial touch of love that a relationship began to build. The parents lived in another town from the hospital. The father was traveling back and forth, trying to hold down his job and care for his family. Veronica began to take meals to the hospital, bought gas cards for the father’s travel, and found many ways in which to share Christ’s extreme love.

Veronica involved her young adult daughter in this process of sharing Christ’s extreme and extravagant love. This ministry of compassion went on for several months. Baby Calen began to gain weight and grow. His lungs completed their development. Then came the day that Veronica received a call that baby Calen was being dismissed from the hospital to go home a strong healthy boy. Baby Calen’s parents asked that Veronica come and have a meal with them for a time of celebration.

Today, the parents of baby Calen (new believers!) have invited Veronica and her family to the baby’s first birthday party. They have truly experienced the extreme and extravagant love of Jesus through his faithful servant, Veronica.

Lord, help us to see the opportunities you place before us each day to love as you would love. May the extreme love you have bestowed upon us cause us to be extravagant in sharing your love with one another. Amen.

Claude Robold, Pastor, New Covenant Church, Middletown, Ohio