Vacation Bible School started yesterday at our church. We had been praying and planning for weeks. We had put in hours of preparation, decorating the building, studying the lessons, learning the music, inviting families, praying that God would bring the children.
Our small church does not have a lot of children that come every week. Some Sundays we only have a handful of kids in Sunday School (yes, that really is about 5 children). We love kids and their families but we just have very few right now. So we prayed and planned. We prayed and prepared. We prayed and invited. And we prayed.
Would God answer our prayers? I know that God is able. God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” and He is able to do it “according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20). But would He? Did I really believe that? Monday morning I took my doubts and my anxieties to the Lord. I asked Him to “help me in my unbelief.” And the Lord answered. He strengthened my little faith. I prayed, “Lord, whatever you do, however many kids you send, we will thank you. We will honor you. We will surrender our lives to let you love through us. We will trust you.”
Bible School starts at 9:00am. We got to the church building at 8:00. We made sure we had at least 30 registration forms and name tags. We did some final preparations. And we waited on the Lord. The kids began to arrive: two; then three more; another little boy; a couple girls; and they kept coming in. Final tally, twenty-five children enrolled first day! Praise the Lord!
After the morning was over, after we sang all the songs, taught all the lessons, played all the games, ate all the snacks, and sent all the kids back home – I was alone in the sanctuary of the church building. I stood there amazed again at the wonderful, faithful God we serve. I thanked Him. I worshiped Him. I prayed for more of His glory.
We had a great day at VBS. I know that God will do even greater things during the rest of the week. I am trusting Him, believing Him, and loving Him.
Do you have a story about how God answered prayer?
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Last October, I had been praying for two years to be able to work from home. My secular job had me driving over two hours a day to work a 9 hour day in an office. It was killing me trying to work in Odessa, pastor in Fort Stockton, and live out at the ranch.
ReplyDeleteFinally, my wife and I decided to put God first and in 2010 I would find something else. But one morning driving to work, I was praying about this and I had an overwhelming sense to go talk to the company about working from home.
I did and they said they hired me from my brains not my hands and I now work from home. I actually work from the church, but you get the picture. God didn't just answer my prayer, he fulfilled it even better than I had been praying for.
Kevin, God has provided for our family so miraclulously so many times. We have learned to simply trust Him as we do the work He calls us to.
ReplyDeleteWhen Kathy and I separated from the Air Force to go to seminary neither of us had jobs lined up. We had two small daughters, no jobs, school to pay for, and a great big God. He provided. I finish my Masters of Divinity in three years; we entered seminary debt-free and graduated debt-free; every bill was paid; we had everything we needed; we were able to give generously to God's work and to help others; and we learned again how great God is and how much He cares for us.
--Richard
Richard, while here on vacation my wife and I visited one of our sister churches for worship on Sunday morning. We had the chance to talk to the pastor and he shared that the church wasn't very old. I think 5 years. Six people started the church as a prayer meeting in a Days Inn. As they grew they moved from one store front to another. One day the church received a phone call from an anonymous giver. He gave the church $1,000,000. He was looking to invest in a church that was new and growing.
ReplyDeleteGod does indeed answer prayer.
Larry, I can relate to those small beginnings. When I started at the church in Kansas that I pastored bi-vocationally for 18 years, they only had six people. We almost doubled the attendance when we added our family of four. Kathy and I prayed a lot. Our friends in seminary prayed for us.
ReplyDeleteOne year later on the anniversary of our starting there we had 35 in worship (and for some reason the original 6 were all gone that day). God had added over 30 people and several of them had been saved and I had baptized them. God does stuff like that all the time, when we trust Him enough to ask.
--Richard