Living in Mississippi, everyone knows that once the summer months come, rain gets harder to come by. This year, we have had a particularly dry end of spring and early summer, with very little rain in our corner of Mississippi during that stretch. It has been highly bemoaned by many people that the lack of rain is starting to ruin the crops because the farmers and gardeners cannot keep enough water in the soil. Our garden was no exception.
My sons have been helping in the garden every day this spring. This week, my four year old began praying with every prayer that God would send rain for our garden. Mind you, this is with a weather forecast that had no real chance of rain coming for the next week and a half. Yet, undeterred, my son continued to pray for rain at every meal, every prayer before bed and every other occasion he thought of it during the day.
By the middle of the week, something happened. One day when there was to be no rain, suddenly we had a thirty percent chance, then fifty, then eighty. That night we had some thunderstorms roll through and give us a nice dousing rain for about an hour. Last night, we received the same thing. This morning, as I wrote this, the thunder was rolling and the rain was about to begin again. My son has also not ceased to thank God for the rain in every prayer since it began.
As with so many things kids do, there is a lesson here for the adults. James said, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). There is also the example of Elijah used in James 5:17-18, showing how when Elijah prayed for it to stop raining it did – for three and a half years! Then, when Elijah prayed again for it to rain, God sent it, and the earth brought forth fruit.
If God will hear the prayers of the righteous man, what about the innocent child who has no sin to be held to his charge, but thoroughly believes in God and what He can do? I believe I have seen the answer. It is a lesson that many Christians need to learn. Many times the adults who should know better do not pray for the things that are needed because we have accepted “that’s just the way it is around here.” We forget the One who created all, and controls all, the One who waits to help those who will ask of Him those things that are needed.
Do we really believe, when we pray, that God will answer our prayers in the way that we need it? Do we believe it is enough to pray continuously without wavering for the needs of our lives? Or, have we already decided which prayers God will answer and which ones are not worth the time and effort?
God does answer prayers. He does not answer them all in the same way at the same time, but He does answer them. May we always put our faith in Him, remembering Who He is and what He has said He will do, and not in what we think will happen “whether we pray or not.”
