A man's daughter had asked her local pastor to come and pray with her
father. The pastor agreed to go visit, when he arrived, he found the man
lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair
beside his bed. The pastor assumed that the man had been informed of his
visit, "I guess you were expecting me," he said. "No, who are you?"
"I'm the new associate pastor at your local church, when I saw the empty chair,
I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the
door?"

Puzzled, the pastor shut the door. "I've never told anyone this, not even my
daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray.
At church, I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went
right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued,
until one day, about four years ago, my best friend said to me, 'Joe, prayer
is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus.

Here's what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you,
and in faith, see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, "I'll be with
you always.' Then, just speak to him and listen in the same way you're doing with
me right now."

"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm
careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have
a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."

The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to
continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died
that afternoon.
"Did he seem to die in peace?" he asked.
"Yes. When I left the house around two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside,
told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from
the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange, in fact,
beyond strange, kind of weird. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over
and rested his head on a chair beside the bed."

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” -John 14:27.