Let’s start this week’s dive into “Anchored to Prayer” with a story. My husband’s grandfather, Roy, was a P.O.W. during WW2. There was a particular day during his imprisonment when the captors stood the prisoners up for a firing squad three times, and each time (thankfully), they changed their minds. Upon his return, Roy was reconnecting with church members and three different people asked him relatively the same question: “what was happening on such-and-such date?” They asked because they had felt a prompting to pray for him and did so without really knowing why. It seems as though God’s mercy and protection came as a result of their obedience to pray and a life was saved.
When I heard that story for the first time, I had a physical, emotional, and spiritual reaction. As the hairs stood up on my arms and my eyes welled with tears; I felt an increase of faith swelling within me. God’s omnipresence (all-everywhere), omnipotence (all-power), and omniscience (all-knowing), was clearly demonstrated to me after hearing this story. See these attributes of God appearing in scripture:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28
“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’”. Isaiah 46:10
I could have also seen that story as a recipe for prayer: Someone is in need of rescue and healing, I obediently pray for God’s rescue and healing, and voila! God relents or waits for me – like a team member in a relay race – to move in merciful ways. And perhaps that understanding is justified. Another option involves changing my perspective to see how God is inviting me into His work. He might be using prayer to increase my faith and point to His merciful movement in the world.
Yet, Jesus taught us to pray in submission and petition (Matthew 6:9-13):
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done… (v10)
Give us this Day… Deliver us from evil… (v11, 13)
I often struggle with making petitions to God as it feels transactional and maybe even pointless. Since God is going to do all that He pleases in His perfect will, can I or should I even have the opportunity to change it? And then I realize what I am missing most in that avoidance: the opportunity to talk to God – to include Him in the conversation swirling around my fears, doubts and troubles. Since His understanding is “unsearchable,” I have no business saying “no” for Him either way.
One of the great gifts of prayer is a shift in our perspective. As I look back on that initial story of four + people (three who prayed and he who was spared); I imagine God was showing them more than His mercy. God might have already planned to spare Roy’s life. Perhaps God wanted those three individuals who prayed to be connected to a miracle He was performing in Roy’s life. Perhaps those three people needed to feel God’s presence in their own circumstances and as a result have their increased faith poured out into their communities after they heard Roy’s story. It is evident that God did increase faith through the power of prayer – not simply the results. I added the “+” because I am now a part of that story. In hearing it, my faith has increased as my perspective has changed.
Don’t miss the conversation with God because you think He won’t answer the prayer the way you want. And don’t miss an opportunity for prayer to connect you to His Kingdom people. Consider God’s “not that, but this” is a bypass to a blessing; how sharing your circumstances with others is exactly how someone else’s heart may open to the Gospel.
This week, bring to mind a time or two when God’s sovereign “no” was a blessing – a time your prayer wasn’t answered your way. Did you see more of God and have the opportunity to include others in your prayer journey regardless of the result you were hoping for?
by Kris Thulson
