Make your prayers count! - Chapter 3
The great Creator God is working out His plan. He keeps it on course, intervening when necessary in human affairs to do so. But do you realize that He allows humans with whom He is dealing to determine many of the details of how His plan develops?
Twice, Moses directly influenced, by prayer, the course of history. Because of the rebellion of the children of Israel, God on two separate occasions proposed rejecting them all and bringing forth through Moses a new nation to inherit the promises made to Abraham.
Exodus 32:9-10
Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now
leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will
destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.”
Numbers 14:11-12
And the Lord
said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will
they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done
among them? I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!”
Had Moses not fervently prayed to God to change His mind, the implication is that God would have done exactly what He had proposed.
Either way would not have impeded the ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan. But Moses’ prayers did determine the course that fulfillment took.
Prayer does make a difference. It changes things.
Luke 10:2
“The
harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in
charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.
Whether or not or in what numbers laborers are sent out to do God’s work must therefore depend at least partly on prayers or the lack of them.
Make no mistake about it: God will accomplish His work of preaching the message preparing the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ — even if He has to cause the very rocks of the earth to cry the message out loud.
Luke 19:40
“If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
Let us not take for granted the privilege we have of taking part in what God is doing! He doesn’t need us. But He gives us the opportunity to participate. Are you participating?
Listen to the apostle Paul:
1 Timothy 2:1-2
I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray
this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live
peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.
Whether or not or to what degree God’s work has peaceful conditions in which to function also depends therefore, at least in part, on how diligently we pray.
If we don’t ask, there is no promise we shall receive.
Do you pray every day for the work of God and for the human instruments carrying it out? You should.
Do you pray every day for God’s blessings on others as well as on your own endeavors? You should. Do you pray every day for protection and help as you function and move about in this evil and dangerous world? You should.
Philippians 4:6
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
This means bringing God into every — yes, every — facet of your daily existence.
