By Ada Brownell
“And this is the confidence
that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
us; and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we desired of Him.”[1]
A strong wind propelled a raging forest fire up the
side of Grand Mesa in Colorado, leaving blackness and ashes in its wake. Grand
Mesa is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world.
The billowing smoke and hungry flames came into view
of a mother and three children, alone in a white two-story house. The roaring
mass of flames raced directly toward their home.
The father had
gone to help fight the fire, which erupted near Cedaredge. He had no idea the
wind would take the fire to his family—now stranded without a car or any other
means of escape.
Inside the house the mother and children ran to the
bedroom, took the Bible and read the Ninety-first Psalm, which talks about
God’s protection for His children. Then they knelt and prayed fervently. Still
praying, they went back to the living room and watched the fire, now almost
upon them.
While they stared, the flames turned away as the
direction of the wind changed. Their prayers had reached God, and He answered!
IMAGINE PRAYER POWER
This true experience is one of several miraculous
answers to prayer shared by members of a church I attended in Lakewood,
Colorado, several years ago. I was asked to speak in the youth service about
prayer. While meditating and praying for the service, I felt I should let
people in our church tell from their own experience what prayer can do.
So I asked people to help me. My only problem was
choosing which miraculous answers to prayer to use! I found so many examples of
the power of prayer I couldn’t use all of them.
IMAGINE CONNECTING WITH GOD
One woman said she uttered a simple prayer as their
family’s truck, loaded with apples, rolled over the side of a mountain. Her
children were riding on top of apple boxes. After she scrambled out of the
truck, crushed by huge boulders, she called her children’s names.
“Tim? Are you alright?”
“Yes,” a voice answered from beneath the boxes.
“Steve?”
“Here!”
“Connie?”
“Here, Mom!”
The entire family escaped uninjured.
“Sometime let me tell how the Lord made an empty fuel
barrel keep the house warm for a week,” she added.
A deacon told how he prayed and God stopped the rain
so he could work on a road construction project. The deacon had five children
to feed. If it rained, he couldn’t work and didn’t get paid.
It was the deacon’s job to send supplies to the men
on the paving machine. For three days the rain followed close behind the road
crew. They could see storm clouds dumping rain behind them, but it never
reached where the men worked. Occasionally the showers came right up to where
they were, and then would go back again.
Many persons told of being delivered from alcohol or
cigarettes. Outstanding physical healings included a baby healed of
hydrocephalus. The doctor wrote “absolute miracle” across the child’s medical
records.
God wants us to talk to Him. If we have a problem, He
will answer. That’s one reason why He’s important to our future. See more
answers to prayer in Imagine the Future
You.
--Excerpt from
Ada Brownell’s book, Imagine the Future
You, copyright 2013
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