The Connection Corner

The Bible That Prayed

Isaiah 55:11 — It is the same with My word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

She almost didn’t find it.

There was no spotlight on it. No labeled box. As she searched through the closet, she pulled a stack of old blankets down, one by one, until something hard and flat slid forward and landed in her lap.

It was her grandmother’s Bible.

The leather was the color of coffee left in the pot too long. It was cracked at the edges, soft in the middle. The spine sagged under strips of tape that had yellowed after decades.

She carried it to the kitchen table and sat there for a moment, just running her fingers over the cover. Then she opened it.

It was beautiful in the way only old things can be. The pages were soft as tissue. Corners were bent from years of folding.

And then the names.

There were dozens. Scrawled in the margins. Squeezed into the white space between verses. A cousin she hadn’t thought of in years. A neighbor who passed away before she was born. A church friend from decades ago.

Every name was written by a verse. A promise. It was like her grandmother had gone through the whole Bible and decided that no one she loved was going to leave this earth without being prayed for according to God’s Word.

She felt tears come before she even realized it. She took it home for safekeeping, and that night, she opened her own Bible.

It had clean pages and plenty of white space.

So, she started writing names and started praying.

And here’s the part that gets me—some Bibles are read through, while others are prayed through. If you believe prayer is powerful, imagine just how much more powerful it is to pray for people according to God’s word.

Because God’s word will not come back empty-handed.

September 23, 2025/by Brenda Price

When God Sends a Friend

Daily Devotional, Lauren Kitchens-Steward

Matthew 7:7 — Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

When Dad passed to glory, his beloved pup Billie Jo lost her reason for getting up in the morning.

She’d been his partner in crime in every conceivable way. Every morning, she’d ride shotgun for the coffee run. Every evening, she’d curl herself up into the crook of his knees.

After he was gone, she wasn’t interested in anything—or anyone—else. Our dogs tried, bless their hearts, to pull her into a game or two. She’d just turn her head away. She ate just enough to keep living, and her eyes stayed fixed on the door, like maybe she was waiting for him to walk back through.

I prayed for her one night while rinsing dishes. It was just a quiet, “Lord, help her find someone to love again.”

A few days later, Steve Holland—our funeral director—came by. Steve is the sort of man who can step into a room where grief is thick as blazes and somehow make it breathable. He stepped in a few days before the service, wearing that warm, steady smile of his.

Billie Jo was lying in the corner when Steve came in. She lifted her head, studied him for half a second, and then… well, she crossed the room and pressed her head into his chest. Steve wrapped his arms around her without missing a beat. It was like they’d both been handed exactly what they needed.

By the end of the week, she had a new home at Holland Funeral Home. Steve calls her “Boo” now, and she’s earned her place as a full-time comforter of the brokenhearted. She sits quietly beside those who can’t find words, reminding them they’re not alone.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. God has a way of taking small prayers and giving them big answers. And I have to wonder, how many miracles do we miss because we never think to ask?

September 22, 2025/by Lauren Kitchens-Steward

Tell Your Heart to Beat Again

Daily Devotional, Tammi Arender

Psalms 73:26 – My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

They tell me the smell of an operating room stays with you.

Cold. Sharp. Like steel and lemon.

Randy Phillips wasn’t a surgeon. He was a pastor and a singer in the band Phillips, Craig & Dean. But there he was, watching a friend perform open-heart surgery in an Ohio hospital. The lights were white-hot, the room too quiet except for the patient’s heart monitor, and every movement felt like it had been rehearsed a thousand times.

The repair was finished. The surgeon massaged the heart gently, coaxing it to life.

Nothing.

He tried again. Still nothing. That silence was deafening, like the whole room was holding its breath.

Then the surgeon did something strange. He pulled off his mask, bent down close to the patient’s ear, and said in the kind of voice you’d use to redirect a scared child.

“Mrs. Johnson, this is your surgeon. The operation went perfectly. Your heart has been repaired. Now tell your heart to beat again.”

And it did.

That moment followed Randy home to Nashville. It wouldn’t let him go. So, he sat down with Bernie Herms and Matthew West, and they turned a hospital whisper into a song. Phillips, Craig & Dean first recorded “Tell Your Heart to Beat Again” for their Breathe In album.

Years later, Danny Gokey heard it. He was carrying his own grief, and the song felt like it had been written just for him. He recorded his version in 2014, and by 2016 it was climbing the charts. But the real story was in the people writing letters and sending messages back—widows, widowers, and others who had lost children, jobs, health, and hope.

They’d play the song on repeat. Some said it got them out of bed in the morning. Some said it kept them from giving up entirely.

And I think about that surgeon’s whisper. Sometimes God works the same way—not with a shout or a lightning bolt, but with a quiet nudge in your ear. A reminder that there is still life left in you. That it’s time to breathe.

And maybe that’s where you are right now. Maybe the room feels cold and the silence is heavy. But the Surgeon hasn’t left. He’s leaning in close.

And He’s telling your heart to beat again.

Lyrics

You’re shattered like you’ve never been before
The life you knew in a thousand pieces on the floor
And words fall short in times like these
When this world drives you to your knees
You think you’re never gonna get back
To the you that used to be

Tell your heart to beat again
Close your eyes and breathe it in
Let the shadows fall away
Step into the light of grace
Yesterday’s a closing door
You don’t live there anymore
Say goodbye to where you’ve been
And tell your heart to beat again

Beginning, just let that word wash over you
It’s alright now, love’s healing hands have pulled you through
So get back up, take step one
Leave the darkness, feel the sun
‘Cause your story’s far from over
And your journey’s just begun

Tell your heart to beat again
Close your eyes and breathe it in
Let the shadows fall away
Step into the light of grace
Yesterday’s a closing door
You don’t live there anymore
Say goodbye to where you’ve been
And tell your heart to beat again

Let every heartbreak, and every scar
Be a picture that reminds you
Who has carried you this far
‘Cause love sees farther than you ever could
In this moment, heaven’s working
Everything for your good

Tell your heart to beat again
Close your eyes and breathe it in
Let the shadows fall away
Step into the light of grace
Yesterday’s a closing door
You don’t live there anymore
Say goodbye to where you’ve been
And tell your heart to beat again

Your heart to beat again
Beat again

Oh
So tell your heart to beat again

Songwriters: Bernie Herms / Randy Phillips / Matthew Joseph West

September 21, 2025/by Tammi Arender