No Minor Miracles
‘Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; to him who knocks, the door will be opened…if you who are evil give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!’ (Matt. 7)
May I encourage you in the last few days of our prayer fast to press into the God who hears, sees, and acts on behalf of His persistent ones? Focused prayer opens our hearts to the needs of others; we invite God to consider those needs and He invites us to trust just how He intends to meet them. In blessed moments, we behold His sovereign care of those we love most.
I am tempted to dismiss the following as coincidence or luck. I rebuke myself. Perhaps these are glimpses of how God rouses and protects His beloved ones in response to our prayers. Consider:
As Annette and I prayed for Sam and Chelsea on the eve of their wedding, Sam was hydroplaning on a wet freeway due to his poorly weighted truck. He was en route to get his wedding license. Unharmed but shaken, he called us just after we had prayed for him. He then proceeded to the bureau in peace.
During a windy day last week, Ann Armstrong prayed with the staff for protection upon our homes. I thought her request unwarranted: ‘The winds aren’t that bad…’ Around the time she prayed, a strange gust blew inside our house and flipped a large glass-paned print off our mantle and onto a lit candle on the hearth beneath it. The pane should have shattered and knocked the candle onto the carpet. Instead, the top of the frame fell smoothly into the thick soft wax, putting out the flame and breaking the fall of the 4’ by 2’ picture. Annette heard the thud from the other room and was incredulous at the lack of damage.
We have been praying for and reaching out to a mother and son whose father abandoned them. They have experienced much fallout from this, including serious illness and spiritual disillusionment. In these 40 days, we have stepped up our prayers and outreach to the mother. She is beginning to trust Jesus again and is experiencing a kind of well-being that has eluded her for years.
3 years ago, I met a ‘gay-identified’ man and the Spirit directed me to fight for his salvation. He stopped going to that gym a year ago but I kept praying for him, especially in these 40 days. When I ran into him in a store the other day, it was as natural as the weather to resume the conversation with him. He admitted some hard knocks, and I, endowed with the Spirit’s power, urged him to build his house on Jesus, imploring him that any other foundation will crumble.
I believe that my friend took my words to heart. Perhaps prayer helped break the ground of his heart and prepared me to plant seed there. Jesus loves this man and wants Him to know the Father’s love. The Holy Spirit gives us the privilege of partnering with Him as He acts through, and on behalf of, His praying Church. We become a prayer, provoked by God’s passion that none perish without Jesus.
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