Magnificent Prayer #47
Magnificent Prayer #47
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5–6
I want to share with you a growing conviction with me, and that is that as we obey the leadings of the Spirit of God, we enable God to answer the prayers of other people. I mean that our lives, my life, is the answer to someone’s prayer, prayed perhaps centuries ago…
I have the unspeakable knowledge that my life is the answer to prayers, and that God is blessing me and making me a blessing entirely of His sovereign grace and nothing to do with my merits, saving as I am bold enough to trust His leading and not the dictates of my own wisdom and common sense.
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Pray About It: Have you ever thought about how your life may be the answer to someone else’s prayer, perhaps someone you never even met? I can fully imagine my great-great-grandfather, more than 150 years ago, praying for his descendants in the twenty-first century. Or perhaps it was the Christian woman who lived in our neighborhood when I was a boy. Maybe that first Sunday school teacher who told me the story using her flannel board.
The above words from Oswald Chambers were part of a letter he wrote, dated February 16, 1907. Sometimes I wonder if God lets those who have gone on to heaven see how their words, lives, and prayers are still having an impact many years after they’ve left this world.
I’d like to think that my great-great-grandpa (or whoever it was who prayed for me) knows that I thank him for praying for me.
Think back. Whose answer to prayer might you be?
Who might you pray for today in the same manner? A future descendant? A friend? A neighbor?
How long will it take us to learn that the shortest route to the man, woman, or child next door is by way of God’s throne!
A. T. PIERSON
From the book
