And this may be a sign among you, that when your children
ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were
cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord: when it passed over Jordan,
the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial
unto the children of Israel for ever.”
Joshua 4:5, 6, 7
--You can read the context of this in Joshua 3.
My family has several specific prayer requests for which we
are praying. Some of them are personal;
some involve the whole family; others have to do with people outside our
family. But we are all praying fervently
for these specific requests.
One request involves a very big desire that my 10-year-old
daughter has. She has been praying for
this specific thing for about two years.
God has not yet seen fit to give her that desire of her heart. But she continues to pray faithfully.
A few days ago, she called me into her room and began to
cry. She told me it seemed that God was
not going to give to her that for which she is praying. She told me she was very discouraged.
I sat down and told her, “Debbie, do you want me to tell you
a secret?” Her beautiful big brown eyes
were filled with tears and she looked up at me.
“Your ‘thing’ for which you are praying is not going to make you happy.” She looked at me in disbelief. I said, “Things do not make you happy. One of these days…and I do believe God is going
to answer your prayer…you will have your ‘thing,’ and for a few days you will
be so excited, and thrilled that you have received your ‘thing.’ But it will NOT make you happy. The newness of your ‘thing’ will wear off,
and you’ll eventually get back into the hum-drum of daily
responsibilities. But I’m going to tell
you what WILL make you happy: the fact that God HEARD your prayer and ANSWERED
your prayer. You’re going to look at
your ‘thing’ that God has been so gracious to give you, and your heart is going
to just FILL up with joy because you’re going to remember how long you prayed
for it; and you’ll just be in awe that GOD heard and answered your prayer!”
One request that we have as a family is for God to allow us to
make a trip next year to the States for a Family Conference in a Hispanic
church. We have been praying and trying
to save our money so we can make this trip.
That afternoon, I told Debbie, “You know, if God lets us
make that trip to Chicago next year, we’re going to have a lot of fun, and we
are going to get to meet new people and make a lot of memories. But that trip will be over and we’ll come
back home. All we’ll have from that trip
are pictures, a few souveniers, and some really great memories. But the thing that will make us the HAPPIEST
is the fact that we prayed together and saw God provide the money and the time
for us to be able to make that trip.”
Her heart was encouraged, as was mine.
When you pray…and you pray…and you continue to pray for a
need, or for a lost loved one, or for a specific desire…you expect God to
answer. And when He does, your faith
grows; and your heart fills with joy over the fact that God in Heaven hears and
answers prayer.
But that answered prayer becomes a memorial in your life and
in your heart. It becomes a monument for
all to see…that our prayers are not in vain.
And when our children ask, “What does this mean?” we can testify to the fact that, as Joshua
said to the children of Israel, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is
among you…” (Joshua 3:10).
What a great testimony for our children to see us pray; and for the generations
to come to know that we are trusting God to meet specific needs! And when He answers our prayer, and we see
Him meet our need, we may all say, “May God be glorified, great things HE hath
done!”
