In our last post, we read about how we can pray for material things. In this post, I’d like to share just a few of the ways that God has provided for me in the past.
I went to Bible College in the UK. It was a very small college with just a few students, but it was one of the best times of my life. In the first couple of weeks that I was there, I realized that I needed a small lamp and a backrest so that I could sit on my bed and study. There was a chair and desk in the room, but the chair wasn’t very comfortable. In this college, we were taught to pray for all of our necessary needs, so I asked Father for a lamp and a backrest.
The next day, I came back from class, and there outside my door was a small lamp. It was perfect for what I needed, and I was completely gobsmacked at how fast the answer to prayer had come. I later found out that the gardener had put it there. “You needed one, didn’t you?” he asked.
Within a few days, I also had an ugly, but very comfortable, green chair. It was far better than a backrest to put on the bed. Whenever other students came into my room, they were able to sit in that chair.
A couple years after graduating, I wanted to take a short term trip to Asia, but had no money. A friend wanted to go with me, and so we began praying about the money. After a few weeks of no answer, and no funds, she came to me and said, “I believe God wants me to use my savings to pay for both you and me to go.” Again, complete shock that she would do that.
After living overseas for a few years, and being back home for a few more years, my wife and I were wanting to get back to Asia. But now we had 3 kids, and my fundraising efforts were falling far short. I felt that we were going to be back in Asia in December 2009, but we had no money to get there.
In late October, I knew that we needed to get the plane tickets soon if we were going to be there in December, so one Saturday night at 1 A.M. I went to the living room to pray. I prayed very boldly. Umm…I pretty much demanded God to answer my prayers. I told Him that we needed $5000 that week, and that I wanted the plane tickets in my hand by the following week. After about an hour, praying all I knew to pray, I went to bed.
The next morning, my wife and I were sitting toward the front of the church, on the side. As the pastor was finishing his sermon, and was about to dismiss the congregation, he said, “On Wednesday, during our time of worship, I had a cold, and my ears were stopped up, and the music was killing me, so I did something that I never do: I walked around the auditorium to pray. As I hit that back corner over there, Stephen X was sitting on the floor writing in his journal, and his wife was bent over a chair praying. As I passed between them, God said, ‘Send them to Asia for me.’ They need $5000 to get plane tickets, so we’re going to take up an offering for them this morning.”
This pastor had never done anything like that before, according to those who had known him for many, many years. But within 8 hours of my prayer, I had the answer. Within a couple of days, I had plane tickets.
Admittedly, this is one of those, “Before you call, I will answer” prayers, but for me, I prayed, and got the answer.
Do you have a need? It could be for a job (which I’ve also gotten in answer to prayer), a car, money, food, clothes. It doesn’t matter. Spend time praying. Pray boldly. Be persistent. Put your prayer on the platform of a promise. Get the answer you need, and give God the glory!