If I could give you one gift that would lift your life to a higher adventure it would be to learn how to pray better. God does answer prayer -I am quite certain about this fact and yet I still have so much to learn about prayer. When we first started the church, our kids were young, and they taught us about prayer. We were always losing things like keys, wallets, purses etc. and when we gave up looking for the items our daughter Elise would ask: “Dad/Mom have you prayed yet?” I would start to lecture her that God had more to do than find our keys for us. But she would beg me to pray and after we did, we always found what we were looking for, much to my embarrassment.
One Sunday our family left church to race to get to a Mariner game. I had a technique to find parking at Mariner or Seahawk games. My son and I would park 3 miles away at our secret spot and then run to the stadium. The girls in our family all protested saying they did not want to run three miles. I explained that we were late for the game, and we didn’t have time to search for 30 minutes only to be forced to park three miles away anyway. I don’t know if you knew this, but my wife Jackie and I don’t always agree. So, Jackie took exception to my plan and insisted that we drive right up to the stadium and look for a parking spot at the entrance. I explained, from my advanced theological information, the game has been going for over 30 minutes and I absolutely knew for a fact that they were not going to leave a spot at the entrance. Jackie pointed out that I had just preached on prayer and why didn’t I practice what I preached. Then she started to quote my sermons back to me. “God answers prayer.” “A day without prayer is a day without blessing.” "It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart." As she preached to me (not going to lie, I was a bit angry) but I turned to drive right by the entrance as the girls all prayed for a parking spot. Just as we were closing in on the entrance, we heard a very loud whistle. I rolled down my window and heard it again as a man and his son waved me into what was the best parking place I had ever seen. I started to explain that we couldn’t afford this spot. He explained that the person who owned this lot was an usher in our services. I looked up to find Vern Berg and his son Loren. They said, just give me your keys and you can walk across the street to the game. I was so amazed, but I did have to hear Jackie and my daughters say: “I told you so, oh ye of little faith!”
Come this Sunday at 10:30 am either online or in person and let's discover together how prayer works.
Your friend for the rest of my life,
Pastor Tim White