Part 1 of 2
I could give numerous, personal testimonies about how God has answered my prayers since I became a Christian, but if you haven’t experienced the reality of that statement, it might seem unrealistic and phony. But for those of us who have experienced the reality of answered prayer, it’s a life that has to be experienced in order to fully appreciate the storehouse of bounty that God has for each of us–Reminds me of this story:
Shortly after Dallas Seminary was founded in 1924, it came to the point of bankruptcy. All the creditors were going to foreclose at noon on a particular day. That morning, the founders of the school met in the president’s offi ce to pray that God would provide. In that prayer meeting was Harry Ironside . When it was his turn to pray, he prayed in his characteristically refreshing manner: ‘Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are Thine. Please sell some of them and send us the money.’ While they were praying a tall Texas came into the business offi ce and said, I just sold two carloads of cattle in Fort Worth. I’ve been trying to make a business deal go through and it won’t work, and I feel that God is compelling me to give this money to the Seminary. I don’t know if you need it or not, but here’s the check. A secretary took the check and, knowing something of the financial seriousness of the hour, went to the door of the prayer meeting and timidly tapped. When she finally got a response, Dr. Lew Chafer took the check out of her hand, and it was for the exact amount of the debt. When he looked at the signature, he recognized the name of the cattle rancher. Turning to Dr. Ironside he said, ‘Harry, God sold the cattle!’
God does answer prayer.
Sometimes God, Who is all knowing, looks into the future and answers prayers before they are even prayed. A good example of this, and one that is particularly personal happened over twenty years ago now, but left me with a feeling of gratitude and wonder that I will never forget.
I was sitting in the office of our Texas National Guard company headquarters (where I worked at the time), at 10:15 in the morning when the phone rang. On the other end was my stepmom who told me that I needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible–It concerned my Dad and it didn’t look good.
I got there within minutes but when I walked into the emergency room Mickey was sitting inside the examining room area, just outside a cubicle, that had the curtains drawn. She really didn’t have to say anything. I knew from the look on her face that I was too late.
She looked up at me with a look of shock and disbelief and told me that my Dad had just died. How could that be? He had just recently had a physical and had really gotten a fairly good report. In shock myself, I really didn’t know what to say or do. I had just lost the only Dad that I would ever have, but the realization really hadn’t taken hold as yet. After consoling one another for a short time, we made the necessary but almost mechanical phone calls to family members to tell them what had happened.
(Continued in Part 2)