When God Answers Prayers For Me And Esther

It rained last Wednesday. It rained HARD last Thursday. And Friday? You guessed it. So what might a guy think on Friday morning, gazing out through a fogged up window at the gray, wet, rainy world? That it's going to rain. But wait, I had a pending request with the Maker for a nice clear day because we had an outdoor outreach activity scheduled in Nueve de Julio. "Well," one might think, "we could always fall back on Plan B." No. There was no Plan B. So, on with the day, there's lots to do. Check through the checklist. Pack things up. Go back over the Bible story I'll be telling to the kids: Jesus Calms the Storm as told in Mark 4.

"Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

And they were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

Think of the irony. I was about to go tell a bunch of kids how Jesus has power over all creation, since it's His and all. But I asked for no rain. It was raining. "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" So what did I do? I sat down and wrote an email to our team to tell them no matter that it's raining outside, it'll stop for the event.

So as not to drag this out, you can take note that the picture above was taken Friday. Indeed, it rained on and off even as we began setting up and headed out to pick up folks to attend. However, not one drop of rain fell on our event. Cool, huh?

Yeah, but here comes the hard part. Did God do that? Was it just what would have happened anyway? Did He do that just for our little event? I mean, even the weather man said the rain would clear out Friday. What if some other poor guy was praying for more rain (doubtful since all the country folk are bemoaning the unseasonal rains that are hindering the beginning of the wheat harvest)? It is so easy to begin the rationalization process...which in turn speeds the forgetting process. Jesus calmed our storm, but let's face it, this wasn't as dramatic as what the disciples experienced. For some reason, it takes such work for us just to come to the point of recognizing that God Almighty, creator of heaven and Earth, has done something only He can do. The disciples were terrified at the realization. So what did I do? Did I just move right along with my life, writing off a miracle in answer to prayer by figuring it would have turned out that way anyway? No, I chose to note what God did and give Him credit...and you know what? I felt a tinge of that respectful fear, a taste of that "Wow."

Esther chapter 4. Esther is convinced by her cousin Mordecai's words that she must appear uninvited before King Xerxes to make known the plot against the Isrealites. She askes the Jews to fast for her. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume they were praying as well. She goes, and instead of being rejected (to her death), the king is pleased to see her and he holds out the golden scepter...and the story goes on. I believe Esther had a chance in that moment to either believe that it was going to turn out that way anyway, or to recall that they had prepared the way in fasting and in prayer, and give God the credit for assuring her safety and accomplishing His will.

God answered prayers for me and Esther.

The Psalmist wrote: ..."in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." (Psalm 5:3)

Pray. It's a good thing. Also, watch carefully for His responses and be careful not to write them off as something that would have happened anyway. You don't know that! We've had no less than four close calls recently while heading here and there in our vehicle. All turned out to be nothing. We had been asking God to protect us in our comings and goings. So, would we have been just fine otherwise? I don't know, but I choose to see God's hand at work in our lives and praise Him for it. And it makes me tremble, just a bit, inside.

Here's some more of the evidence from last weekend's outreach. Enjoy.

By the way don't we have cute kids!