When everything seems stacked
against us and all hope is lost, we begin to think that we are so utterly
alone. When we have tried everything we can think of and still we come up
empty, it is precisely at times like these that we must prevail in prayer for
great and mighty things.
One of the readings for last
Sunday was taken from Jeremiah the weeping prophet. Jeremiah was commanded to pray
for great and mighty things. A rebellious king named Zedekiah attempted to
stifle the prophet’s convicting pronouncements about the doom of Judah. This
king would be the last before Babylon took the Jewish nation captive.
The
LORD commanded Jeremiah to pray and then backed the command with His creative
power (v. 2). Nothing is too hard for the LORD who made heaven and earth and
everything that dwells therein. Jeremiah
33:3 “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show
you great and mighty things, which you do not
know.”
When the Lord thinks
about you and me, He has thoughts of peace and not of evil
(Jer
29.11a). He seeks to give us a future and a hope
(Jer
29.11b). This knowledge assists our prayer effort. When
we call upon our LORD and pray to Him, Hel listens to us (Jer
29.12). Seek Him and He will be found if you search with
all your heart (Jer
29.13; Deut
4.29).
We are still able to repent
today and call upon the LORD. We may even obey the admonition Solomon gave to
Israel and say, “We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness”
(1 Ki
8.47). God will hear and forgive us. That’s why He
commands us to call upon His name. He will grant us compassion and listen to us
whenever we call to Him (1 Ki
8.52).
"Call upon the LORD in the
day of trouble; He will deliver and cause us once more to glorify Him"
(Psalm
50.15). The Psalmist stated, “Evening and morning and at
noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and [the LORD] shall hear my voice”
(Psalm
55.17). God is “abundant in mercy to all those who call
upon [Him]” (Psalm
86.5). “In the day of trouble I will call upon You, for
You will answer me” (Psalm
86.7).
“He shall call upon Me, and
I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor
him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation”
(Psalm
91.15-16).
“The LORD is near to all
who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm
145.18). “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon
Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to
our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa
55.6-7). There is power in this command because of the
position of our God. He alone is God, Creator of
everything.
Jesus said, “Ask, and it
will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to
you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who
knocks it will be opened” (Luke
11.9-10). “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”
(Hebrews
4.16). The power of His position is behind His command
to pray. God always makes good on His promises to us. “By awesome deeds
in righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the
confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off seas”
(Ps
65.5).
Romans
8.32 is just but one
example: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” God loves us and
desires that none of us be lost and alone. He is
merciful. The demonstration of God’s power unleashed through
our prayer effort is fortified around literally three categories of things: Great Things,
Mighty Things, and Things We Do Not Know.
Some time ago I read
about a man by the name of Phil and his family. Phil did not know what to say
when his young children asked if their Mommy was going to die. His wife (their
mother), Ramona, suffered horrible seizures. Hundreds of friends and relatives
prayed, but Ramona’s weight eventually slipped to 90 pounds. Medical
specialists tried everything, but by the fall, the seizures were occurring
daily, sometimes hourly.
Phil rarely left
Ramona’s side. He wondered if she would even make it to her 30th birthday. One
evening, when things looked utterly hopeless, Phil paced around his dark
backyard. Suddenly a doctor's name came to mind. Phil called the doctor, who
saw Ramona the next morning and diagnosed a rare chemical
deficiency.
Within a week, Ramona's
seizures ended. Her eyes sparkled again. The miracle was so incredible; Phil
knew that God gave him back his wife. It all began with a despairing cry.
In Christ,
Brown
“Stir Up Our Hunger”
Prayer Conference with Rev. Nigel Mumford from By
His Wounds
Worship by Binghamton House of Prayer
October 18-19, 2013 at First UMC in Endicott
October 18-19, 2013 at First UMC in Endicott
Friday Oct 18th: 6:30 PM - Registration opens
7 PM - Worship and Teaching
Saturday Oct 19th: 9 AM - Doors
Open
9:30 AM- Worship and Teaching
1 PM - Healing Service
7 PM - Worship night with Binghamton House of Prayer
9:30 AM- Worship and Teaching
1 PM - Healing Service
7 PM - Worship night with Binghamton House of Prayer
Sunday October 20th
Rev. Mumford will be sharing at the 8:30 and 11:00 AM services at UCUMC
Rev. Mumford will be sharing at the 8:30 and 11:00 AM services at UCUMC
** Please note that Friday and Saturday sessions
will be held at First UMC in Endicott to allow for more space for prayer
ministry.
To register, please go to www.binghamtonawakening.eventbrite.com
To register, please go to www.binghamtonawakening.eventbrite.com
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