If the request is wrong, God says, “No.”
If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow.”
If you are wrong, God says, “Grow.”
But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, “Go!”
Here is a prayer where everything was RIGHT:
In its early days, Dallas Theological Seminary was in critical need of $10,000 to keep the work going. During a prayer meeting, renowned Bible teacher Harry Ironside prayed, “Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Please sell some of those cattle and send us the money to help us meet this need.” Shortly after the prayer meeting, a check for $10,000 arrived at the school, sent days earlier by a friend who had no idea of the urgent need or of Ironside’s prayer. The man simply said the money came from the sale of his cattle! Expect an answer. If no answer is desired, why pray? True prayer has in it a strong element of expectancy; expect God to do something!
Dr. Thomas M. Carter, an ex-convict, tells a thrilling story of his mother who constantly followed him with her prayers. On one occasion while he was in prison, she received a telegram stating that he was dead and asking what she wanted done with his body. Stunned by the news, she opened her Bible and laid the message beside it.
“Oh, God,” she said, “I have steadfastly believed that You are a rewarder of them who diligently seek You. I felt sure that I would live to see Tom saved and preaching the Gospel; and now this wire says he is dead. Lord, which is true, this telegram or Your promises to me?”
When she rose from her knees, having won the victory, she sent this note to the prison: “You must be wrong. My boy is not dead!”
And sure enough there had been a mistake. Tom Carter was alive! He was later converted and lived to be a preacher of the Gospel!
Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Jack Ward is pastor of Tomahawk Missionary Baptist. Check out the church’s website: tomahawkmbc.com.