Prayer: It works!
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Today I am celebrating answered prayer!
Before I get too far….
What is Prayer?
It’s that carefully structured, politically correct, be sure you use the right form of Thee and Thou monologue that can be said in anyone’s presence, and not offend a soul, Right? It’s all about sounding spiritual for anyone who’s around and might hear me, Right?
…NOT so much!
Prayer, is a conversationg between me and God. Sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s fun. Sometimes it’s not even words, but it’s always about having a relationship with the Lord.
A FUN PRAYER:
I remember one day while I was living in the Ozarks of Missouri, I was walking through a clear creek picking up rocks (If you hang out with me long enough you will find out what a rock lover I am…. maybe sometime I’ll snap a picture of the ones I have bootlegged back to Nebraska in the trunk of my car and post it for you to see ) Anyway, I digress. So, I was enjoying my afternoon at the creek and I found myself, OUT LOUD saying, “Hey God, I’m lookin’ for one of those friendship rocks and I’m not leaving til I find one. Could you help me?” Just to catch you up, in case you don’t know, a friendship rock is one that has had at least one hole worn clear through it by the elements of nature. It can’t be made by drilling a hole through it, it has to be made naturally. My Uncle had shown me those rocks when I was young visiting my grandparents’ farm. And I’d always been intrigued with them. For me it was like finding a 4-leaf clover. They weren’t just the run of the mill. …….. within 10 minutes, I found a friendship rock! And then I found another. Prayer works!
A Desperate Prayer:
I remember another prayer. When I was a senior in high school I had a chance to go do mission work in Haiti with Grace Missions. A team of 6 of us and our sponsor was put together and poised to leave in June of 1986. For those of you old enough to remember, that was directly after Baby Doc’s government (I don’t remember the leader’s given name) was overthrown. For the weeks leading up to our departure, there were nightly news stories about violence and tires being burned in the streets of Port au Prince and other places around the island. I was devestated when my mom and dad said to me one night, about a week before I was supposed to leave, that if there was ONE more story on the news about violence happening in Haiti before I left….. then I would not be going!
I can’t tell you the words I said or whether I called Him God or Jesus or Heavenly Father…. but what I do know is that I was DEVESTATED!!! I was so sure that I was supposed to go to Haiti on that mission trip and now my parents might “get in the way–all because they were afraid! Didn’t they know that God was going to keep me safe? Didn’t they know that if I died over there, it would be for the Kingdom? Didn’t they know that there was a bigger plan?” Yes, I was 18 years old and I still Knew it all! …. but really, I was 18 years old and I still had the faith of a child, untarnished by the concerns of the adult world. I know now that it wasn’t lack of faith in my parents, but their love for me that set their foot down. So, I remember crying myself to sleep that night knowing that only God could get me to Haiti! I can’t even tell you if a word came out of my mouth, but I remember pouring my heart out through my tears and my cries for God to make it happen. …My parents did not see one single news story about the violence in Haiti from that night until………………. the evening news AFTER I boarded the plane early in the day to go do mission work in Haiti. God shut down the Media coverage of Haiti (at least in my house) to answer my my cry to go! Prayer Works!!
For a time when it looked like God didn’t answer, come back tomorrow for part 2 of Prayer: It Works!