Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
MATTHEW 21:21-22
My friend Kevin Dyer is a missionary. He tells a beautiful story of an experience another medical missionary had in Central Africa.
One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward, but in spite of all we could do she died, leaving us with a very tiny, premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive. We had no incubator. We had no electricity to run an incubator, and we had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.
A student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and for the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke the fire and fill a hot-water bottle. She came back shortly, in distress, to tell me that in filling the hot-water bottle it had burst. “Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates, and it is our last hot-water bottle,” she exclaimed. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down the forest path, so I said, “Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, then sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.”
The following noon, as I did on most days, I went to have prayer with the many orphaned children. I gave the children various suggestions for prayer and told them about the tiny baby. I also told them we had no hot-water bottle to keep the baby warm, and I told them about the two-year-old girl who was crying because her mother had died.
During the prayer time, one 10-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the characteristic bluntness of African children, “Please, God, send us a water bottle. It will be no good tomorrow, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.” I gasped at her request, but she went on, “And while You are at it, would You please send a doll for the little girl so she will know You really love her.”
I was really on the spot now. Could I honestly say Amen to this prayer? I just knew there was no hope for an answer. The only possible way He could answer her request was by sending a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for four years at that time, and I had never received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send a parcel, who would put a hot-water bottle in it, since I lived on the equator?
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurse’s training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home the car had gone, but there on my front porch was a 22-pound package. I felt tears well up in my eyes. I sent for the children, and together we carefully pulled off the string and wrapping paper. There were 34 pairs of eyes focused on the large cardboard box.
From the top, I lifted out brightly colored knitted sweaters. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were some knitted bandages for the leprosy patients and a box of raisins for some cookies. As I put my hand in again, I felt it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand-new rubber hot-water bottle. I cried. Ruth was in the front row and ran forward. “If God has sent the water bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too.” She put her hand in right to the bottom and pulled out a small, beautifully dressed doll. She looked up and said, “Can I go over and give this dolly to the little girl, so she will know Jesus really loves her?”
That parcel had been on the way for five months. It was packed by a Sunday School class whose leader had obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot-water bottle even to the equator. And one of the girls in the class had put in a doll for an African child—five months earlier in answer to the believing prayer of a 10-year-old to bring it this afternoon.
Is there some action that you should take that could be an answer to someone’s urgent prayer? Don’t push those prompts away, but obey them, and do them, and so be an instrument of blessing in God’s hand. I think the Lord often speaks in quiet ways that often involve a thought crossing our minds. Just take action; don’t put it off. Seize the day. And you will be a participant in the answer to someone’s prayers.
GOING DEEPER
1. “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). How have you seen this kind of faith work in your life? Have you seen these words perhaps used in a wrong way? How?
2. What are your prayer concerns? Take a few minutes to bring them to your loving heavenly Father who cares so deeply for you and your welfare.
FURTHER READING: Matthew 7:7; Luke 17:6; 1 Corinthians 13:2.