ANSWERED PRAYER

I Kings 18:37; Psalm 91:15; Luke 11:9

Prayer should be an important element in our life. I do believe that those that pray regularly see their prayers answered. When all others around us are discouraged and turning their back on God, prayer warriors are sorely needed.

Elijah was a prayer warrior. God strengthened him for what God needed him to do. His prayer was not loud and boisterous nor self-centered. It was simply sent through heavens gates to touch the ear of God almighty. It was a simple request for the demonstration of God’s great and mighty power in consuming a water drenched sacrifice offered to God. Such a simple prayer. “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.”

Would it not be wonderful to hear this prayer offered of an evening to God that this day, may the hearts of the people be turned back to God? Notice how he phrased his prayer to God. He got God’s attention – “Hear me, O LORD, hear me.” I may be downstairs in my study and my wife upstairs and she wants my attention and she calls, “HEY”.

Notice the plea or request that Elijah has for the LORD. “that this people may know that thou art the LORD God”. This very first request was for the honor and glory of God. We must get this idea in our mind, our reason for being here, our purpose in life is to honor and glorify God.

The second request is “that thou hast turned their heart back again.” That is our quest today. We need to pray that God will use us to reach out to those that have strayed from God and turn their hearts back to Him. Here is the sequence that I see here. Hold God up to unbelievers. Serve God by drawing those that stray back to the fold.

God has made a promise to us.Psalm 91:15 “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”

When we make the Lord our habitation, our dwelling place and continually turn to Him, we find that he knows us. We become familiar because He is our heavenly father and desires to cover us with His wings according to Psalm 91:4 Psalm. 91:11 speaks of His angels he has charged to keep us in our ways. We see He answers our call to Him. He is concerned for us. His promise is to be with us in trouble. He has promised to deliver us and honor us

Through our simple prayers, not only can we communicate with God, but we can plead with Him to change the hearts of people that have turned away from Him.

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

We need the faith to ask, seek and knock. Notice the three steps given to us here. We need the faith to ask. First consider the glory of God. Ask that He might be lifted up and all glory will be God’s. Ask God that we might be diligent in serving God in all areas in our life. Then we ask for our needs.

We are then to seek. Search out what the Lord would have us to do. God has a purpose for us. He has something for us to do. Let us seek that purpose and find God’s desire in our life. He wants us to seek the salvation of the lost.

We need to see the return of some that have strayed. The desire of our heavenly father is that His people will turn to Him. His desire is that the lost be saved by trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ. May we raise a chorus of prayers to heaven that the Holy Spirit will touch hearts today, convict the lost of their need for a savior, and that those that have grown cold will yield and turn to serve.

We are called to knock so that doors shut to us will be opened. Sometimes it seems that entrance is denied and doors are shut. Knock. Allow the door to be opened. We understand that in a physical manner, we should do the same in a spiritual way. There are times that we need to knock to gain entrance. Let us be persistent and knock to gain entrance. May prayer become a habit for us in this day and age.

What is your prayer today?

THINK! IT’S A GOOD TRICK IF YOU CAN DO IT!

William Andrew Dillard

“And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.” I Kings 17: 15-16.
From the pages of antiquity comes an unusual, arresting story that the Lord Jesus would use hundreds of years later. It would offer the Pharisees, and all future generations an opportunity to rethink their spiritual position.
Now, as then, there are those who feel that they have God franchised; that if He does anything, He will either consult with, or work through them. While this writer has profound respect for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it remains possible for a church to become just as the ancient Pharisees were in this regard.
So, jumping in thought from the ancient days to the ministry of Jesus, we hear him saying in confrontation with the Pharisees: “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.” Luke 4:25-26. This so infuriated the good folks in the synagogue at Nazareth that they sought to cast Jesus off a mountain. (What kind of righteousness is that?)
Things have not changed over the years. When people are thinking, believing, or doing wrong, and then confronted with truth, they have two options: Accept it and change or retain error and become angry. Blessed are those who do the former.
But, the ancient Pharisees were so much like many modern religionists. They were so steeped in traditions, many of which supplanted the very Word of God, that they became blinded to opportunities around them, and the magnificent, awesome possibilities afforded to those who simply trust and do with childlike faith. How we should pray that our minds and hearts should be more as parachutes, and less like concrete.
So, just why did God bypass His people of covenant to bring such a blessing, and marvelous story into the Word with someone estranged from that covenant? Maybe it was for the very purpose that Jesus used it hundreds of years later. Also, He doubtlessly knew this common, human failure was not restricted to the Jews, but would afflict His people down through the centuries. By it, a wonderful goad was created for His people of all time.
Sometimes great blessings in harmony with the Word lie just outside the box of long held traditions. Then, let no power succeed in leaving one fearful or derelict to explore the principles of the eternal Word. THINK!

337 – Dec. 03 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Baptists preceded the Reformation

 

1847 – Thomas Rees Davies, the Welsh Baptist pastor, known as “Old Black Cap”, because he wore a velvet cap in the pulpit, provided a great verbal description of himself in a letter he wrote to a deacon in London, who was to meet him at the train. He wrote, “At Euston Station…about nine in the evening, expect the arrival of a gray-haired old man; very tall, like the ancient Britons, and without an outward blemish, but a Jewish high-priest. Like Elijah, he will wear a mantle, not shaggy, but superfine, and like Jacob, he will have a staff in his hand, but will not be lame, it is hoped. But most especially, he will have a white string in his hat, fastened to his coat button. There will be many there with black strings, but his will be white. Let the friend ask, ‘Are you Davies?’ and his answer will be, ‘Yes.’” Baptists in Wales preceded the Reformation. The Venerable Bede (673-735) wrote, in his work, that Welshmen followed the Bible only and opposed the superstitions of Rome. It is clear that there were those who held Baptist convictions in Wales at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first Baptist church in Wales after the Reformation was formed at Ilston, near Swansea, in Glamorganshire, in 1649. Wales has also had a great influence in America by sending entire congregations to our shores. Christmas Evans was one of the greatest of their preachers, so named, because he was born on Christmas day. When Davies started his last preaching tour and sensed that his days were few he said that he wanted to be buried in the same grave with Evans. He preached on July 22, 1859, died on Sunday the 24th, and was buried in Evans tomb.
[This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 661-62. Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (New York: Bryan, Taylor, and Co., 1887), pp. 599-600.]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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