"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you."
(John 17:7)
Greetings! Each year seems to have its particular surprises, and even its particular theme as God moves in the sphere of human affairs. The year 1997 revealed an especial emphasis on answered prayer that had me truly amazed. The past few years have also revealed answers to prayer I had prayed many years ago, but then especially in the '80s as God brought me into contact not only with former high school acquaintances, but also with some I had known way back in grammar school! Through the Internet I became reacquainted with two former army buddies I had known in Munich, Germany back in the early '60s. The opportunity to witness which I had prayed for left me amazed.
In 1997, I spent some time with my sister and her husband in Ohio. I had not seen her in 8-9 years. The occasion was the wedding of her son, Donny. At a church service after the wedding (they asked me to take the photos, which God really blessed - they turned out so well!), I contemplated God's wonderful answer to prayer. On my right was my sister, Sylvia, whose salvation I had prayed for 12 years till she gave her heart to the Lord in '81. Toward the end of that time, after her first husband had died, I had prayed for a godly man to come into her life and help lead her to God. Carl, the answer to that prayer and my sister's husband for the past 15 years or so, was sitting to her right. I had also prayed that they find a good church home, and the one whose service we were attending was the answer to that prayer. They have enthusiastically attended it for some years now, and Carl is now a deacon there. And of course, I had been praying for my sister's 3 children, and my nephew, Donny, sitting to my left (who had given his heart to Jesus the previous Thanksgiving) was an answer to that prayer that is still ongoing for his brother and sister. The woman he had just married - Gloria, a godly woman - was a member of my sister's church.
Of course God answers prayer in Oakland, CA (where I was living at the time) as well. I daily took the bus to work and had opportunities to share my faith in addition to leaving tracts. One morning, I met a Chinese lady I had not seen in many months. She recognized me and sat down next to me. To my surprise, she began sharing that she was attending a Chinese church, and added that it was good to meditate on Jesus Christ, for "He is the only way!", she said. My eyes got wide as I told her, "But I remember so many months ago I tried to tell you about that, but you told me you had rejected God and had decided to become an atheist." (She had told me that very loudly and heatedly, as a matter of fact.) "I know," she humbly replied, "I was wrong!" I told her, "I prayed for you." Just that one bit of testimony, though it does not stand alone, is certainly nevertheless by itself worth the eight years I lived in Oakland. That is not a place I would choose to live in as there is very much turmoil and tragedy there, but God (those two little words have come to be very meaningful in my life) has been doing a very good work there.
"Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent."
WAIT
Author Unknown
quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
and the Master so gently said, "Child you must wait."
Wait? You say, wait? my indignant reply.
Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith, I have asked, and am claiming your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
hangs in the balance and you tell me to WAIT?
I'm needing a "yes," a go-ahead sign,
or even a "no" to which I can resign.
And Lord, you promised that if we believe
we need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry,
I'm weary of asking, I need a reply!
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
as my Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
and grumbled to God, so I'm waiting....for what?
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun,
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.
All you seek I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you would not know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint,
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.
You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair,
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me,
when darkness and silence were all you could see.
You'd never experience that fullness of love
as the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.
You'd know that I give and I save...(for a start),
but you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the night.
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.
You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that "My grace is sufficient for thee."
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come
true, but, oh the loss, if I lost what I'm doing in you!
So, be silent, My child, and in time you will see,
that the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft' My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, Wait.
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A PATHWAY TO PRAYER
BE STILL AND KNOW
(regarding contemplative prayer)
ARE YOU LONGING FOR HIS APPEARING?
KNOWING GOD'S WILL
GOD'S IMPENDING JUDGMENT OF AMERICA
