30 Days of Prayer for the EDGE, Day 5

Day Five

Today I want to relay to you the prayer team some things that have come to me in the last few days.

A) Unanswered Prayers  

From Matt Daniels As the 30 Days of Prayer continues, I was reminded today: "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers. Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs that just because he may not answer doesn't mean he don't care. Some of God's greatest gifts are all too often unanswered prayers."

We recognize that God may not allow us to stay in our current building, and that may be the greatest gift he could give us.

B) God's Rosebud

Then this one talks about how things happen in God's timing.  

Begin forwarded message:

Mark, Thought you might appreciate this little article just now, what with the building situation....

take care,

 Love you,

Aunt Judy

God's Rosebud
==============

A new minister
was walking with an older,
more seasoned minister
in the garden one day.

Feeling a bit insecure
about what God
had for him to do,
he was asking the older preacher
for some advice.

The older preacher
walked up to a rosebush
and handed the young preacher
a rosebud and told him
to open it
without tearing off any petals.

The young preacher
looked in disbelief
at the older preacher
and was trying to figure out
what a rosebud
could possibly have to do
with his wanting to know
the will of God
for his life and ministry.

But because of his great respect
for the older preacher,
he proceeded to try to unfold the rose,
while keeping every petal intact.

It wasn't long
before he realized
how impossible
this was to do.

Noticing the younger preacher's
inability to unfold the rosebud
without tearing it,
the older preacher began
to recite the following poem...

"It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine."

"The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so easily,
But in my hands they die."

"If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?"

"So I'll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step of the way."

"The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord knows.
I'll trust God to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose."

~Charlie Gilchrist~

We are trusting God to unfold his plans for us at just the right time.

C) Hezekiah's Illness

Finally Amy Merwin showed me this passage earlier this week.  It shows the King weeping before the Lord and God answering the King's prayer.  

2 Kings 20

Hezekiah's Illness

 ¹ In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."

 ² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³ "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 ⁴ Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: ⁵ "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.' "

 ⁷ Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.

 ⁸ Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day from now?"

 ⁹ Isaiah answered, "This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?"

 ¹⁰ "It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps," said Hezekiah. "Rather, have it go back ten steps."

 ¹¹ Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Lessons from this passage:

We can learn something from the intensity with which Hezekiah prayed.  

Hezekiah did not need to ask for the sign, and he should have just trusted God to be true to his word.

Nevertheless, God did the miraculous, and made the Sundial go backwards - that is the God we are praying to.  One who can change the rotation of the earth!!

Let us pray bold prayers.

Mark

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