Envelopes And Oranges
“I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined his ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.” - Psalms 116:1,2
GOD HEARS MY PRAYER
This is my very favorite passage on prayer in the entire Bible. Think of it. God Himself, the Creator of the rabbits, the puppies, the ferns, the mountains and the moon— is attentive to your voice and your requests! And, as we see His power moving in our lives in answer to our prayers, it produces in us a greater and deeper love for Him: It becomes “I love the Lord because He hears my voice.”
It’s really quite astonishing that the omnipotent God would actually listen to us and grant some of the things we ask. But it’s all part of His eternal plan for us.
He’s called us to be His sons and daughters and this means that we will co-work with Him both in this life and in eternity. It’s like we’re being trained for our destiny–and it’s an extremely high calling.
This passage ends, “Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.” Not only has God heard our cry and our prayers in the past, but He will as long as we live. What incredible news!
(This doesn’t mean that God grants all we ask. But there is the process of growing to abide in Him more and more and in the process we discern His will and desire for us and others and we ask according to that.)
ONE WHOPPER OF AN ENVELOPE
I remember one time years ago when I kept asking God to help with finances for an outreach we were doing. We kept having all kinds of bills hit us and all our money was being drained inch-by-inch. There was no answer—not even a tiny hint of an answer came for a long, long time
Finally I wrote in my prayer book, O God, our money completely runs out in three weeks on April 1st. Please help!
On March 31st someone handed me a nice letter. I opened it and could not believe my eyes. Stuffed in it was a check for $50,000! That’s over $100,000 in today’s money! And, get this. The check was dated one day later—April 1st—the exact day I would completely run out of money.
Later I asked the man who gave the letter to me why he dated the check one day ahead. He told me he didn’t know why, but he felt should.
My little prayers were “stored up” for a super-sized answer–a whole lot more than I expected!
FRUSTRATING ORANGES
A funny experience drove a lesson home to my doubting heart.
For a season I had a fun part-time job up in the mountains teaching children about nature. (What a great job!)
After one particularly long day of hiking and instructing, I headed home in a buddy’s car with three other instructors. En route, I was seized with thirst. Big time. I must have dehydrated myself and not realized it.
No problem, I thought. I’ll just buy one of those bags of fresh-mouth-watering oranges sold for a dollar at the carpool parking lot where I left my car.
Recurring visions of delicious, sweet, juicy oranges popped in my mind every minute or so as we headed down the mountain. Ahhh. I could hardly wait.
Finally, we arrived and said our goodbyes. Eagerly, I walked to my car flung the door open and reached for the ashtray for my spare change. “Rats!” I murmured. Only 53 cents.
Next I hit the glovebox, searching for more but found only find ten cents. I looked between the seats and got another eight cents, which gave me 71cents. Not enough. Surely there must be more money in this car!
I complained under my breath. I searched everywhere. But I found only 78 cents all together. Twenty-two cents short! I was so frustrated. I hung my head on my steering wheel in total disappointment and complained to God, “I don’t even have a dollar!” I muttered. “All I wanted was a few lousy oranges.”
DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING
Just then there was a knock on the window. Madeline, one of my fellow naturalists, grinned at me. “Hi Don,” she greeted as I rolled down my window. “I couldn’t resist.” She held up a BIG bag of oranges. “Here,” she said handing it to me. “These are the greatest oranges. Have a bag on me.”
“Thanks.” I gulped, and managed a weak smile. She bounded back to her car and drove off. I sat with my bag of big, plump, juicy, sweet, delicious oranges. Looking toward the sky, I prayed, “Thank you, Lord. Thanks for the reminder. You do care about the simplest things in my life.”
I’d never been given a bag of oranges from a stand before, and never since. How much little things like this build our love for Him!
“It is not so much the big things but the little things that show us God’s amazing intimacy with us”
Oswald Chambers
“I love the Lord because He hears my voice…” - Psalms 116:1,2.
My voice. Absolutely incredible.
Don Miller