Okay....seriously......I didn't really think that I would post a new blog again this week....but I just can't let this one go and get stored into the back of my mind.....it's dangerous there.....that part of my mind is a deep abyss that has all sorts of loss thoughts and ponderings in it.
Enough.....here is it:
I would like for churches to prayerfully consider the things that go on their signs for the lost world to see. I now know why people don't like churches. What kind of message are they sending??? I past a church sign on my way to work the other day....I spent the rest of my time riding to work and talking to God about the whole thing. The message of the sign?
"Don't expect to get a thousand dollar answer from a ten cent prayer."
Now I am not a theologian nor am I a great author who has written plenty of books on prayer. I am just a simple person living day to day.....following God, hearing His voice, and trying to be totally His. But, what I do know is God hears the prayers of His children. I have had many ten cent prayers.....I am sure many others have yielded up to heaven ten cent prayers. And it has sometimes resulted in thousand dollar answers. (not to be taken literally)
To me this sign showed a "boxed" in God. A "formula" God. An "apples to apples" kind of God. God does not work like we do. He does not give like we do. This sign does not reflect God....it reflects us and how we sometimes are with each other...."scratch my back and I'll scratch yours"
God is much bigger than this. I have been in places and in situations where I was not strong enough to even pray a prayer and all I could muster up was His name....."Jesus" "Jesus". He heard my cry.....my prayer reached His ears......although it was not this long eloquoent prayer......it was the Name above all Names.
This brings me to my next question....."what is a thousand dollar prayer?" What does it look like? How do you pray for those thousand dollar answers? Is it the length of the prayer? The words that we use? What is it?? Gah.....this is so frustrating to me.
This all reminds me of something God taught me last spring. My mom was terminally ill last spring with pancreatic cancer. It was an awful time for all of us....because my mom (aka "nana") was the glue that held us together. Shortly before she passed, God taught me a lesson about a ten cent prayer (or what I think others would deem as "ten cent"). My neice (three years old at the time) came over to my moms house and my mom was not feeling well at all. In fact I think that we took her to the Hospice house on that day. My mom asked Olivia (my niece) to pray for her. So Olivia walks over to the couch where my mom was lying down.....placed her little chubby hand on my moms hand and took a deep breath and said these simple words:
"God is great.......God is good.....amen"
That was it....nothing more than the beginning words to a childhood table blessing.....what we have all grown up praying before we would eat our food. As a child I use to breezed through that prayer not ever thinking about those words. God grabbed my heart that day and showed me the intensity of those words spoken by a young child....this was more than a table blessing, this was a profound prayer.
Now to many that prayer could be worth ten cent and could possibly get a ten cent answer...but on that day, it changed the way I viewed prayers and the way I viewed God's answers to our prayers. God knows the heart. He knew this little girls heart and he answered her prayer by being Great and being Good on that day.
God is Great
God is Good
now.....let us Thank Him!
1 comment:
To you question, the difference between a $1,000 prayer and a ten cent prayer is the sincerity behind your words. It's not the length or eloquence of the words, it's the intensity of the words that come from your heart. Ten cent prayers are ones that are said with the mouth and not the heart. The greater the intensity of the feelings behind the words the more potent they become and the more valuable they are to God because they have more value to you.
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