Prayer Over Fear

Ravi Zacharias shares how, “At the historic Amsterdam Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in 1986, a renowned Korean speaker, Billy Kim, told the story of an American soldier hiding in a bunker during the Korean War. When his commander ordered him to rescue some of his fallen mates on the front lines, the soldier nodded his head, took a covert glance at his watch, stalled till his commanding officer was out of sight, and simply made no move. Several minutes went by, and a colleague reminded him of his rescue assignment. Again he looked at his watch and hesitated. At of a sudden at a certain moment, he leaped out of the bunker and fearlessly began rescuing and carrying his compatriots to safety.

At the end of the day, a friend asked him to explain why when asked to rescue his mates, he kept looking at his watch before rescuing them. The soldier said, “I was afraid because I knew I was not ready to die. I waited until my fear would be overcome—remembering that when I left home, my mother gave me a Bible and said, ‘Son, wherever you are, I want you to remember that at this particular hour of every day I will be on my knees praying for you.’”

“Sir, I have no courage till I knew my mother will be on her knees praying for me and then it didn’t matter for me what would happen. I knew that no matter what awaited me, I could face it.”