Why do I not get it? I should know where to find my God. I always have to come up with some other place to search. Maybe God's waiting for me in the closet. I'll give Him some time to go through my garb of goodness. Things will go well if I do what I should...be kind, caring and courageous. I'll look out for others and help the less fortunate. I'll be a grand husband and wonderful father. No God...well that's too bad. Maybe He's waiting in the kitchen. That's OK, He'll be able to see I'm keeping a good diet. He won't find any junk food of bad TV or movies. Of course, there are plenty of protein laden prayer meetings and church services. Oh yeah, He'll like the salads of sobriety and servant hood...He wasn't there either. God never has cared for my thoughtful uselessness. He didn't want me standing around thinking I deserved His watchful eye. That room...the one I threw all the junk in when company came over...He had found the key and snuck in. I guess I should go in too....Oh my! I didn't realize it was so full. He was there all the time. God was waiting for me in my dilapidated room of brokenness. God could only piece me back together if I was broken.
"Cinderella Man", one of my favorite movies of family, will and patriotism, had a part in it I will never forget. Jim Braddock had lost most everything, his health, his fame and his money. The struggles were overbearing. They hardly had any food left but they sat down to eat anyway. Jim's wife, Mae, waited for him to pray...he looked at her with that hopeless face and said, "You pray. I'm all prayed out." He didn't know what to do...he was spent. What do you do when you're all prayed out and spent?
Pray!
It was gone. What was I going to do? I could stand to miss a few meals but Brandon needed his precious formula. Again, I cried out to God. I stopped at the gas station and shamefully asked the owner of the station, a friend from church, if I could have five dollars of gas and I would pay him on payday. He was very gracious and said it would be fine. He pumped the gas and started into the garage. As I was leaving he yelled for me to stop and ran out to the car. "Don't tell her, but my wife gave me this shower gift to give to you a month back and I forgot about it till now" he said. Ten dollars...formula was $9.99...an answer and change.
Did my friend forget or was God preparing an answer for my brokenness? Be careful wives, is your husband forgetting or is he being used to answer a prayer?
Prayer isn't only about me. I also pray for others and those answers also build my faith. I don't always know what to pray for but God wants me to pray always...without ceasing. Sure, we pray for others as they request prayer but what if I know nothing about the concern. Does the precipitation of prayer trickle down into my life when I open my heart for God to put in the concern of others?
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