The
Book of Genesis
Day 218
A Crazy
Prayer
Ge 24:12 Then he said, "O
LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and
show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 "Behold, here I stand by
the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are
coming out to draw water. 14 "Now let it be that the young woman
to whom I say, 'Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,' and
she says, 'Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink' -let her
be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I
will know that You have shown kindness to my master." 15 And it
happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who
was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's
brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.
Let’s look today at the
prayer of Abraham’s servant . He has put himself in a good position
to succeed on his mission to find a bride for Isaac. The daughters of
the men of the city were all coming out to draw water, but which one
would be right for Isaac? How will he know?
He comes up with this idea
to ask one of the ladies for water, and if she gives him water AND
volunteers to water his camels, then she will be the one! Think
about it! What are the odds of finding a beautiful woman, who
volunteers to water your ten camels in light of the fact that one
camel is capable of drinking 40 gallons of water in one session!
That's a lot of haulin'! I mean if I'm praying, I'm looking for
something a little easier! I'm praying, “Lord, let the first one
who says “hi,” be the one, in Jesus name, Amen.”
Excuse
me, but this was servant's prayer strikes me as a crazy prayer! It
was about as crazy as Elijah’s prayer for a drought found in 1Ki
17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to
Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word."
A
crazy prayer that was answered. Where do these kinds of prayers
come from? They come from ordinary men who put there pants on one leg
at a time just like you and I. Jas 5:16b,17 “The effective, fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a
nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and
it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
These
kinds of prayers come from the Holy Spirit. The servant and Elijah
likely had a God-given picture of what God was going to do, and so
they prayed it back to Him. These same kind of Spirit led prayers are
spoken even today. Ac 2:17 says, 'And it shall come to pass in the
last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see
visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants
and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And
they shall prophesy.
I
don’t claim to be a righteous man or even an effective prayer
warrior. Quite frankly many of my prayers have been generated by my
flesh and not the Spirit. But I remember one specific ridiculous
request that I made at a time of corporate prayer. It was for the
restoration of a family that, (given their circumstances) seemed
impossible. But I had a picture put into my mind, while we were
praying as to what that restoration would look like. It was a
picture of a restored family gathered once again around a table
enjoying food and each other. I don’t know where it came from, but
I blurted out this picture in prayer…. And you know what? It came
to pass!
In
God’s mind, this restoration was already a done deal. (As was the
drought with Elijah and the servant’s prayer for the willing wife
to be Rebekah.) He just gave me a glimpse of what it would look like.
These
are rare and blessed moments and we need to cherish them, and at the
same time guard against turning them into displays of the flesh,
where we manufacture scenario’s for itchy ears for our own gain.
No comments :
Post a Comment