And then I got it……..
When you finally get a concept that is trying to be downloaded to you, you know a lightbulb moment, an “uh-huh” moment, the moment the cymbals clang together and the lightening flashes inside your head. I got one of those today.
Often, they are hard to put into words but I am going to try, so bare with me.
We had a Bible study this morning and one of the questions was, “Can your prayers change the mind of God?”
What an interesting and amazing question! Do we, you and I have the power to sway God’s mind?
We were led to look into the Bible and went to Genesis 18:22-33. Here is the link to the actual passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+18%3A22-33&version=NIV
The lowdown on this passage is that God shows up to talk to Abraham, yes, God. He confides in Abraham that He is about to wipe out a city because it is so wicked. First question: Why does God decide to confide in Abraham, why for that matter does He confide in any man/woman?
Abraham tells the God of the universe that basically he knows his opinion is worthless, but he bravely continues on, what if God finds 50 righteous people in the city? Would the fair God of the universe wipe out the righteous and the evil people?
God relents. The story goes on and Abraham gets braver and braver until little by little he gets God whittled down to agree that if He finds even 10 righteous people in the city, He will not wipe it out.
Second question: do our prayers have the ability to change the mind of God?
First question answer: God wants to partner with humans in this life. He does not want us to be on our own, that decision is ours, we can accept Him or reject Him. God in fact, wants interaction with us. The very first story in the Bible about creation and the way God designed man. Genesis Chapters 1-3 God created a very special place to put man, the Garden of Eden, and it says that God walked in the garden as well. God’s unique design is to accompany us on this journey called life. So why would God confide in any man/woman? Because He wants to include us in His plans and have a relationship with us. God loves us, we are His creation. We are coming up to the "love day", valentines day, remember God wants to be "your" valentine, He wants your heart and He wants to give you His.
Second question: do our prayers have the ability to change the mind of God?
Answer: according to Genesis 18 and the story of Abraham and God talking, it seems that Abraham did indeed get God to relent His decision to destroy the city without first finding out if there were righteous people in it.
Shift the scene to last Friday night and me in an emergency room where my blood pressure was not behaving at all rationally! In fact, I stayed the night. At one point laying there, I asked Jesus where He was and you know, He showed me He was standing there with me. If you ever get to get this experience, not much else matters. You understand that God knows the whole situation and He is right there with you. We had a little conversation – He said the health journey was not quite over yet. I did not want to hear those words and I honestly do not know what that means but the fact that God chose to come and tell me Himself and let me know He was right there, I was peaceful. My body was still fighting but my soul was fine.
Back to Bible study today and someone prayed emphatically that God would heal us from whatever was trying to attack us.
I sat there and remembered Jesus words in the emergency room that the journey was not over but also know that we are supposed to ask God and expect God to heal us. I was confused how to put these 2 pieces of knowledge together because they seemed to be conflicting. Do I believe Jesus' words to me or my friends declaration for healing?
The room today was full of ladies who had been through huge health challenges, broken hearts, broken spirits, much like all of us and I wondered, how did these 2 ideas fit together?
I was driving home and singing away to Paul Brandt's "It Is Well With My Soul", the car is a safe place to belt out a few tunes since no one can hear me. All of the sudden I got it!
I got how these 2 ideas, Jesus saying the health journey not being over and then my friend proclaiming our healing fit together.
God showed me that just as Abraham was able by communicating with God to convince God if there were 50 righteous people or even 40 or 30 or down to 10 then God would not wipe the city out.
The city was still going to be judged, and in my case the health journey is still going to happen. Abraham prayed for people he did not even know and God listened. The proclaiming for healing today was just like Abraham asking God to please consider the righteous people.
God showed me that no matter what, we have to ask for healing and who knows that that one prayer, possibly your prayer, may sway God to heal the person totally or shorten the duration from years to months to weeks to possibly hours. If Abraham could change the outcome of that city, then your prayers, our prayers, can change the outcome in your or someone else’s life.
Do you truly understand that? Your prayers for someone else can change the outcome for someone else. Many people wait to pray until it is the last possible reaction to a difficult situation, instead it should our first line of defence, because who knows how your prayers have been answered in the life of another!
You may never know if your prayer is answered, you may never know how God changed the situation, but by not praying, we know one thing for sure, nothing changed because you decided to not take the time to pray for your friend, your family or even a stranger.
I know that God answers prayer, every time, He promised to do so, what are you going to do about it, you probably have some people to get praying for.
Link to Song: Paul Brandt - It Is Well With My Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKcM21Cyg_Y
Link to Song: Paul Brandt - Hope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm1Jl8Zd5uE