“Prayer…Oh no! Has it Come Down to That?” (Part 4)

“Stöwer Titanic” by Willy Stöwer.

It was a Wednesday morning in late June 1985 when I drove my rusty Vega station wagon to DeLaney’s Restaurant. A friend had invited me to meet her for coffee. My pockets were lined with lint and my billfold was empty. “Lord, I’d really like to be able to buy coffee for Anita. So could you please find a way to provide the money?” I whispered in a quick prayer.

I parked in back of the restaurant, jumped out, and for some reason, I looked down at my rear tire. There tucked neatly under it was a dollar bill.

Now, a dollar bill may not sound like much today, but thirty years ago that purchased two coffees and allowed me to leave a tip on the table for Connie, the waitress.

This small miracle opened my eyes to the reality of God being my Provider.

Okay, have all of my prayers been answered so quickly? No.

Why not?

When this experience happened, I had been saved for one month. I was a baby Christian who threw his hands up in the air toward a Big Daddy. It worked on God, just like it did when my kids held their hands up toward me. I couldn’t resist my children nor could the Father resist helping me that day. You see, God loves His baby Christians.

But the Father requires His kids to grow up and mature, not being baby Christians forever.

So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. (Hebrews 6:1 NLT)

Our walk with the Lord, and especially our prayer lives, require us to keep drawing nearer and nearer to what seems like an impossible and unattainable goal: maturity, with Jesus Christ being our standard for comparison.

How can we possibly do this?

(Continued in Part 5…if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)