Sometimes it seems as if God is a million miles away. Yet he is there, many times closer than we think.
In his book, God Is Closer Than You Think, John Ortberg includes this story about the power of prayer. He writes:
"When my friend Kim was a young girl, her dad pulled the car off the road one day to help a woman change a flat tire. While he was lying under her car, another vehicle accidentally swerved to the shoulder, and in the collision the car was shoved onto his chest. His right thumb was torn off at the joint, five of his ribs were broken, and his left lung was pierced and began filling with blood.
His wife, who is barely five-feet-tall, placed her hands on the bumper of the car and prayed, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," and lifted the car off his chest so he could be dragged out. (Some weeks later she found out that she broke a vertebra in the effort).
Kim's father was in a state of shock as he was taken to the hospital. Doctors prepared him for emergency surgery. "His thumb won't do him any good if he's dead," one of them said. His survival was iffy.
Suddenly, spontaneously, the man's skin changed from ashen to pink. He experienced a miraculous healing. He invited a surprised surgical team to join him in singing "Fairest Lord Jesus." They did not even bother to hook him up to oxygen.
He did not find out until later that this was the precise moment his father-in-law, who was a pastor, had his congregation start to pray for him.
Sometimes these stories come from not-very-credible sources such as publications sold in grocery checkout lines that also carry news about extraterrestrial creatures secretly playing third base for the Boston Red Sox. In this case, however, the subject was James Loder, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary.
His life was not only saved, but changed. Until then, although he taught at a seminary, God had been mostly an abstract idea to him. Now Jesus became a living Presence. Kim writes that her father's heart grew so tender that he became known at Princeton as "the weeping professor." He began to live from one moment to the next in a God-bathed, God-soaked, God-intoxicated world.
My prayer today is that Jesus be a living presence in my life. How about you!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Amen! Prayer was the topic of our Bible study in Rangers last night. It was a great discussion of how to pray, to continue to pray, and to ask God for guidance when you think He's not hearing you. I impressed upon the boys that God is always here...right HERE! It is us that put up the barriers between us, our actions and thoughts and attitudes. God answers prayer each and every day! Does He answer my prayers every day? Yes! Each and every day I pray for continued health and happiness for my family, my friends, my coworkers, and my church family...and, to my knowledge, all of those people are blessed each day by the goodness and grace of God. They may not realize the blessing as they travel through tough times but some serious reflection and pragmatic dialogue with others open their eyes and hearts to the realization that God is in control!
That's a wonderful thought for me, that God is in control. The Creator of the universe, the Maker of the intricacies of time and space and matter and human beings cares to be in control of my life. WOW! God cares for each of us (including you!) that same way. He will lovingly care for you the remainder of your days (and your days here on earth are short compared to the eternity you get to spend with God) if you just ask Him. Speaking from experience, His plan is far greater and more beneficial than anything that I ever dreamed up. I love God, not only for all He has done for me but also for all He does to keep everything in place and going. Without His minute corrections in our world, just think how much we would have destroyed and made barren...far more than we already have--and we've done a lot! I'm not plunging into an environmental theme though, just praising the Creator and Continuer (is that a word?) of this world...and my life.
Love God, love people.
Jon
Post a Comment