A: To pray.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
As I watched the storm, I asked God to let me take a picture of lightning.
The Lord causes clouds to rise over the earth. He sends lightning with the rain (Jeremiah 51:16). And He answers prayers.
To God alone be the glory!
Observe how the lilies of the field grow . . . not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these . . . So do not worry (Matthew 6:28-34).
So do not worry. Pray.
“As they stoned him, Steven prayed . . . ‘Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!’ and with that he died. Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen (Acts 7:59-8:1).”
Soon after Stephen’s death, Saul, renamed Paul, believed and preached that through Jesus “there is forgiveness for your sins (Acts 13:39).”
The Lord answered Stephen’s last prayer.
Habakkuk foresaw impending doom. So he prayed. “How long, O Lord, must I call for help? . . . Why must I watch all this misery?”
The Lord’s reply gives us courage and hope as we live through these dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said, “I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it (from Habakkuk 1:2-5).”
Friends gave us a book. Twenty-one years ago. I just started reading it.
Perhaps a gift you’ve given is sitting on a shelf. Perhaps your prayers are yet unanswered.
“And Patience was willing to wait.”*
*L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, p.339.
Our youngest 14 month old grandson had surgery (ear tubes) last week. We were concerned that he’d cry (well scream) when they took him from his parents to go to the operating room.
He’s usually more comfortable with men than women, except for his mom, so we prayed that a male would carry him back.
Here’s what my daughter texted while he was in surgery. “They took him back. A male anesthesiologist was holding him and he was happy. Praise the Lord!”
I cried out to the Lord. He heard me and opened the heavens. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him.
He reached down and rescued me because he delights in me (from Psalm 18:6-19).
Long ago we caught a monarch caterpillar and watched it become a chrysalis and then a butterfly. Our youngest daughter had been too small to understand, so for years we looked and prayed that we would find one. We never did.
Then, late one summer, we noticed a monarch chrysalis on our front porch. The day we left for vacation my youngest daughter watched it emerge.
Now, every time I see a monarch butterfly I remember God’s kindness.
She prayed for a son and God granted her petition. In her next recorded prayer, Hannah “takes little notice of the particular mercy she was now rejoicing in. She overlooks the gift and praises the giver.”*
Here’s some of what Hannah prayed:
There is none holy like the Lord:
There is no rock like our God.
The Lord is a God of knowledge,
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth (from 1 Samuel 2:2-10).
Next time God answers your prayer, praise Him like Hannah did.
*Matthew Henry, The Matthew Henry Commentary, p.283.
