Prayer. So much to say, so much to learn.
I love to think of it as sitting down next to my Lord wanting to hear him. Sweet private privilege!
I love to think of it as a lifestyle more than a work list (an easy trap for church planters), what I want more than what I need.
But surely there's a need to pray to work things out. It works. Amazingly quick, sometimes.
Last summer, in a beautiful late afternoon, my wife Aden and I set out to pray walk our neighborhood. After walking and praying for 30 minutes, we reached no.1 road and saw a man riding his bike along the road. A bus flew by his side and bumped him just slightly and he was knocked down instantly. His arm was cut deep and muscle torn. Since it happened 10 metres before our bare eyes, and nobody else there, we comforted him, volunteered to be witness while awaiting the ambulance.
I was praying, "Lord ... may you protect our neighbors, help them and rescue them from all dangers ..." Then the accident happened. It surely would cause his life if the bus did a little more than a slight touch. God saved him! But is he our neighbor? I never met such a person in our community. A bit rugged and broke. A smell of alcohol here and there. But when we later talked on phone, both of us were amazed to learn we live in the same street, in the same townhouses complex.
We were there at the right place, at the right time, made a right prayer and God responded and reached out to rescue him all right away!
There are too much mysteries with prayers to God. It works in amazing ways that I know little of.
However I admit our prayers don't always happen like that. For most of the time, we pray in the dark and after prayers, still in the dark. So persistently we pray - fighting, struggling and continuing, even though nothing seems to happen. "Nothing changes" seems to be the only reality.
What could we say of our life being a local missionary and church planting couple? Fatigued, lonely, confused. Lots of time.
It takes lots of effort and plenty of time and prayers for cultivating a field(heart) for the gospel. Lots of trial and error until one or two germinates. Still growing a life to Christ and seeing life transformation surely don't come at eye's brink. It's a lon.................g, slo.....................w process.
Despair, hopelessness, discouragement and all kind of negative feeling set in and out our minds and hearts all too easy. Still we persist and we pray. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. And we lose hearts and wonder if our prayers would matter.
But Jesus is very gracious and wonderful. Once a while he chooses to show up instantly and cheer up the downcast spirits. He reaffirms us: things are happening when you pray even though you don't see it! We are now holding a Bible study group for non-Christian school parents at one of their homes weekly. Jesus presence is sweet and obvious there. Two instances show how instantly he answers our prayers:
At the beginning of the meeting, Susan shared a very strange touching moment a few days ago while at her car. She felt a sudden but strong need for relationship deep down her heart. She never had that kind of emotion before and it touched her. I told her just about the same days around, I had prayed for her. I sensed her lonliness and longing for relationship in prayer. I prayed that God would touch her heart and fill her with his love and touch. Apparently she instantly experienced that longing and that touching from our Father. She thought that was amazing!
Angela attended our group for the first time that day. When hearing these almost unbelievable touch and answer of prayers from God, she asked if those were that real. So my wife told her a story about her, Angela...
A few days ago, Aden had invited her to this Bible Study group and her answer was positive. On Saturday we thought we might need to call her to reconfirm. We decided that calling her would be a bit blunt and too artificial to her that she might turn down. So we prayed that night that God would provide a chance for meeting her and her boy next day in the park. While kids played together, we then reminded her. But the next day, it was raining. So no park day. And we went out for lunch forgetting about the invitation. On our way back home, Aden's phone rang. It was Angela call. She made some bakery for us and she now called us to meet her to get the buns. WOW. So we met her, reconfirmed her coming!
God prompted her to call us. He doesn't need our planning. He doesn't need the sun & rain to co-operate. He only needs us to pray. Then he opens our eyes and makes us see a reality: things are happening at the time you pray.
As for Angela, she responded, "It sounds so miraclous" - from the mouth of a non-believer.
Last week, when we met and sang the song "Abba Father" together, they all (non-christians there) noticed that Angela had tears in eyes while singing.
Jesus is so amazing and sweet. He is almightily powerful...to hear our prayers and to make things happen right away but not necessarily at our sight.
Don't lose hearts. Keep praying. Keep believing.
