06/16/2024
The incredible width and breadth of prayer is our contemplation today. The magnificent blessing and power of prayer should be evident to all believers, and yet some can’t seem to grasp the enormous magnitude of it. God’s promise wasn’t that if we prayed he might do something for us, or that he might give us food, but not something else. No, His promise is that if we pray within His will, and in the name of Jesus, He will give us anything we pray for. What an amazing promise this is. So, if we pray as we should then there is nothing He will not provide us. There are many scriptures that make references to this truth, so let’s begin by using one from the New Testament and another from the Old Testament for reference…
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
1 John 5:14-15 ESV
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Psalms 81:10 ESV
In my morning devotional reading this morning Pastor E.M. Bounds reiterated the great power and scope of prayer when he wrote these words:
"Prayer is a wonderful power placed by God in the hands of His people, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results... Prayer reaches to everything, taking in all things great and small that are promised by God to His children."
E.M. Bounds
The thought Bounds made that captured my attention this morning was "to achieve unusual results" which at first blush seems unusual in and of itself. However, the more I thought about this statement the clearer it became. It is referring to God's ability to provide for us in ways that are uncommon or non-existent in the natural order of things.
In our prayer walk with God we discuss many things, and we ask His provision or solution to far reaching needs and desires. Some of our wants require miraculous intervention such as when we pray... "Lord my child is dying, please remove the tumor from his body" and then something unexplainable in the natural world occurs, the tumor vanishes. Unbelievers tend to deny God's ability to be an actor outside of what nature can explain. They take comfort in being able to explain away miracles... But some answers to prayer deny explanation. God created the natural world and placed us in it, but He didn't bind Himself up in the process.
Every morning I pray for many things, but one thing I always pray for is God's protection for myself and my family. Most times His protection goes without notice, but every once in a while He steps in and lets me see the movement of His hand in this regard. I am going to share such an occurrence with you.
A few years ago a severe storm was moving through Nashville. I was returning to work and driving down a highway into town that takes me through a park. As the trees were being whipped by the wind I saw just ahead that one was splitting in half. I quickly tried to jerk the wheel, but despite my best efforts the tree was going to crush my car. In an instant, I was surrounded by green, but suddenly it was gone. I was unharmed. Here are two text messages I sent my wife and my spiritual mentor following this event...
06/15/2016 4:38 PM
"Well, that was close... A big hackberry tree split down the middle and fell onto highway 100. In a split second I jerked my wheel, but it didn't look like I was going to make it... The tree was falling on my car. But then in an instant I cleared the branches, and when I looked back... The wind had lifted the tree and set it back in the park! God answers prayer. Rich"
I had nearly been crushed but had miraculously escaped harm without so much as a scratch on myself or my car. The next morning I drove by that spot and looked at the tree. Here is my second text message...
06/16/2016 6:49 AM
"On the way to work this morning I took a good look at the tree which split yesterday and nearly crushed my car. Each half had remained attached in some way to the trunk of the tree. What I perceived as the wind lifting the halves from my car was actually the wind subsiding and allowing the halves to be pulled back by their attachment... Like a spring."
God had stilled the wind for an instant, and what was about to be a tragedy became a miracle. His hand had been on me; the tree wasn't allowed to split completely, the wind was stilled and the natural law regarding energy had allowed the tree to snap back from the road and to miss my car that was traveling into its branches at 45 miles per hour.
What should have happened was quite different. As the wind ripped the two halves of the tree onto the highway, they should have separated from the tree trunk and crushed my speeding car. After all, they were already covering me. But they didn't. How an entire tree that was blown over onto the highway could rebound in an instant and its roots maintain their grasp on the ground is beyond belief. The two split halves remaining attached and being catapulted from atop me was a miracle. All of this occurred in what had to be a split second.
How many times does God answer your prayers without you knowing it... in unnatural (or supernatural) ways? During my experience there was a car several hundred yards behind me... They must have pulled over because the next time I looked back... They were gone. Did they see the miracle? Did it frighten them? Or, was that car a part of the miracle itself? God answers our prayers and isn't bound by nature in ways that we are. He can change our reality in a heartbeat.
This morning when you pray, don't trivialize simple words like "Lord keep me safe this day" or "Lord protect my family today"; you can't say them too many times. And, while you are at it thank Him for all of the unseen blessings and protections that He performs for us each day. After all, if He asks us to pray in secret are you surprised that He answers in kind?
Our God is evident in nature... as He is present in all things.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for hearing all of my prayers, and for not forgetting a single detail included in any of them. Thank you Lord for giving me everything that I ask for, which has been prayed in accordance with your will, and in the name of Jesus Christ your Son. Continue to bless me all the day long Abba as you answer me both openly and in secret. Bless me through all that you provide and do for me, whether those things are large or small, and teach me the lessons that are imbedded in each response. I thank you for every answered prayer that was for me alone, and especially for those that I may have prayed but were meant to show those around me who you are, strengthen their belief, or to bring you glory. Holy, Holy, Holy are you our God who was, and is, and is to come, and for the power to pray that you have granted us… for all eternity. You are merciful and full of grace Father, and we witness your goodness as you forgive us our sins, provide us sustenance, and answer every other request we pray for as we should, from our hearts. We see you work in natural ways, and we see miracles performed that we can’t begin to understand, or that are performed outside the natural laws you have set in motion for us. We see the least of our prayers answered, and the greatest of our hopes fulfilled that were prayed with the help of the Holy Spirit as we groaned them from within the depths of our souls. We see some of these easily, while others come secretly or without being announced beforehand. Help us to pray with great expectation Father and to always say “Not my will, but yours be done.” Help us to look for evidence of you in everything, and teach us to give you the glory for all you do for us knowingly, unknowingly, and by abstention. We thank you for the gentle showers that water our gardens, and we thank you also for the storms, because despite the winds and floods that prune our trees, and which water every living thing, there is greater goodness, miracles, lessons, and a demonstration of your awesome power in each of them. In both the showers and the storms we see you, and give you glory Lord, and likewise in our prayers that are prayed without ceasing we see you moving; sometimes boldly, while at other times quietly, or even in secret. We pray for forgiveness for our sins that we have committed knowingly, unknowingly, and by abstention, and we thank you now for your answer to our prayers that we witness in like kind. We thank you and give you glory now for the answers to our prayers that we have seen, those that came in secret, and those that were withheld and mercifully left undone. Praised be your name Holy Father, and we thank you for prayer, and your Son Jesus who taught us to pray...
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13 KJV
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Rich Forbes