When you wonder if your prayers make a difference
Fires and now floods.
For the past few months, fires have ravaged my home province of Alberta. For weeks, all we could smell was smoke. For weeks, we wondered if we would be the next ones to evacuate our homes.
And now, the rain is finally falling.
Heavy, heavy rain, days of rain, washing away the fire, the smoke, the ash, making all things green and lush and new.
And now we have flooding. Just 10 minutes from our home, the Athabasca overflowed its banks and the ferry was forced to stop running. Forty minutes from our home, the entire town of Fort Assiniboine was evacuated, the rivers reaching the underbelly of the bridge.
We had been praying for rain since springtime.
Now we’re praying through the floods.
Sometimes, it’s tempting to stop praying altogether.
Sometimes, when it feels like all our efforts are in vain, we wonder why we bother.
You see, the reason we pray is not because we can fix anything. Only God can fix things. God is in total control of the fires and the floods. God is sovereign. The reason we pray is because we love him, and we desire to know him, and in praying we come to understand his heart, and we can stand in agreement with him for his purposes.
You see, he allows the fires and the floods for a reason. It’s to make us fall on our faces and need him.
He is faithful, friends, and he hears you.
As I tell my kids, Sometimes God says No, sometimes God says Wait, and sometimes He says Yes. But always, he answers, and always, he is good.
So don’t stop praying.
