Don’t forget to ask!
“You do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:2) In our Christian belief that God is sovereign, it is easy to fail to do the simple things—like making requests to Him in prayer. We must never allow God’s sovereignty to prevent us from obeying the command to “let our requests be known unto God.” Jesus is interested in our life and wants us to ask for His care. Here is a recent example I would like to share to encourage us to pray for one another.
A couple of weeks ago I was in North Carolina speaking at spiritual renewal services at two different churches. As I got up early that Monday morning for the drive home, my spirit was disturbed. I just had this uneasy sense of danger concerning the trip back to Mississippi. Therefore, as I was getting ready for the ten hour drive back home, I posted a prayer request on Facebook asking my friends to pray for my travels. I did not say anything about the sense of danger I felt, but I wanted those who believe in prayer to ask the Lord for traveling grace for me.
Before I left, the pastor I was staying with wanted to pray for me. As he was praying, three different times in the prayer he came back to asking the Lord to protect me on the road. I had said nothing to him about my uneasy feeling about the trip, but he continued to revisit the safety element of the prayer. Then I left in the darkness and rain.
Forty minutes into the drive I was caught in a horrible lightening storm with torrential rains. I was driving on the inside lane of the interstate near Charlotte, NC, and a car on the other side of the interstate left the highway, began sliding through the median, and was heading straight for me. I don’t know if the lightening had blinded them or if they hydroplaned, but I had no where to go! Suddenly their car hit a large pool of water and what appeared as a tidal wave splashed up into the sky. It was as tall as two 18 wheelers stacked on top of one another. I braced for the impact of the huge volume of water and what I thought would be the car after that. All I had time to say was, “Lord, help me!” After crashing through the wave, I looked back and saw the other car sitting a few feet from my lane and pointing in my direction. The pool of water had prevented the car from crashing into me.
I immediately thought upon the uneasy feeling and the prayer request I had made to my friends. Many had prayed—even some who sent me messages and called but never knew what happened. I made it home on the wings of the prayers offered by my friends. And God heard their prayers. In all our doing…Don’t Forget to Ask!
