Daily Manna from Heaven

“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” -Matthew 18:19

General George Patton believed in getting things done. He once told a chaplain, “There are three ways that men get what they want: by planning, by working, and by prayer.” When rainy, foggy weather stopped the Allied Forces intent on liberating Germany, Patton telephoned the Third Army Chaplain and said, “This is General Patton. Do you have a good prayer for weather?”

The chaplain came up with one in a hurry, and Patton had it printed and distributed to the 250,000 men under his command with the order to pray for good weather. “I am a strong believer in prayer,” he said. When the weather couldn’t be changed by hard work or by planning, Patton resorted to prayer.

Everyone, however, doesn’t share Patton’s enthusiasm for getting things done through prayer. A contemporary of the Russian novelist, Dostoyevski, whose name was Turgeniev, wrote that “whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer,” he said, “reduces itself to this: ‘Great God, grant that twice two not be four.’”

Donald Cole points out that H. L. Mencken used to laugh at prayer. When he signed his letters, “I am praying for you,” he considered that to be wildly humorous. I, suspect, however, that on his deathbed, Mencken changed his mind.

As the Titanic listed in the icy waters of the cold Atlantic and people began to realize the unsinkable ship was about to go down, the orchestra began playing, “Nearer My God to Thee,” and people began praying.

If I had never attempted the broad jump, and I was on a roof with safety a mere six feet away, I can tell you for sure that I would be highly motivated to give the leap my very best try. But if I had trained for the Olympics as a broad jumper, then, a six feet or two meter leap would be a pretty simple feat.

The difference, of course, would be the discipline and training. That’s why the one who prays only as a ship is going down, or prays only at the bedside of a dying loved one, or only as a plane tosses in angry clouds, is not sure whether his prayer is a grasping for a wild hope that God will hear him, or knows that in the time of trouble, his father will hear his voice.

For you who want to discover something of the power of prayer, may I suggest that you start training today. “How?” you may be thinking. Let me put it like this. If I wanted to learn how to acquire a skill, I’d begin by getting some of the best books available and hearing what the experts have to say.Does that work with prayer? Yes and no.

Taking time to study both the contents of the prayers which both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul prayed gives you a structure, something to use as a guide. There are times when I have read some of Paul’s prayers—say, those recorded in his letters—and said, “Yes, Lord, that’s how I feel. Increase my understanding and give me wisdom. What Paul prayed is what I want and need.”

But in the final analysis, you have to learn to pray yourself. Prayer is conversation, remember? It has to come out of your heart, not out of a book. A study of Paul’s prayer, however, shows that he prayed for others, he prayed for friends, for enemies, for situations, for safety, for deliverance from difficult problems, for physical needs, for deliverance from those who hindered the work.

He prayed with other believers in small groups, on his own, in times of worship and praise. General George Patton was right. Prayer is a means of getting things done, God’s way.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” -Mark 11:25

Of the four Gospels, none is more to the point and straightforward that the account of Jesus’ life as rendered by Mark. Because of his close relationship with Peter who, himself, was a pretty blunt, leave-nothing-unsaid sort of a person, many scholars believe that Mark simply reflected Peter’s thoughts.

With that in mind, may I remind you that some of the most uplifting, positive words of Jesus are also recorded by Mark? For example, Mark tells about the time Jesus was talking with the disciples and said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Then Jesus said, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (v. 25).

Ponder those words, “When you stand praying…forgive…” “Just a minute.” you may be thinking, “What does God have to do with my relationship with other people?” In one word, everything! Prayer reflects a vertical relationship between you and God, but forgiveness is a picture of the horizontal relationship between you and someone else.

Jesus is saying that personal, answered prayer is conditioned upon your relationships with others as well as with God. But that’s not the way we like it. We prefer to get what we want from God at the same time we snub people or are angry and bitter with them. But it doesn’t work.

Immediately after Jesus gave the disciples the prayer we know as The Lord’s Prayer, He made this statement: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14,15).

You can’t have it both ways. If you want God’s forgiveness, you must learn to forgive others. If you want God to answer your prayers, you have to turn loose of the bitterness and let Him deal with some situations.

Question: Why is it so difficult to do this? The answer is that you feel more in control, more in charge, when you are filled with anger. But the very opposite is true. We also feel that forgiving someone is a matter of weakness, a giving in to the other, capitulating. But it is none of these. It is turning loose; it is letting go.

The Bible teaches that to forgive someone is to give up your right to hurt that individual because he hurt you first. It isn’t letting the person off the hook, but turning him over to God. And believe me, when you do this, the burden lifts and the anger and hatred in your heart is replaced with God’s love.

A rabbi who had lost his family in the Holocaust said that he forgave Hitler for the horrible loss he had sustained because he chose not to bring Hitler to America with him. That’s wisdom. In their book How to Forgive When You Don’t Know How,” authors Mary Grunte and Jacqui Bishop write, “When you forgive, you reclaim your power to choose. It doesn’t matter whether someone deserves forgiveness; you deserve to be free.”

Should you take time to do a study of how the word forgive is used in the Bible, you will discover that in the vast number of occurrences, it relates to an individual’s response to wrongs that others have done to him or her, rather than to seeking God’s forgiveness for what the individual has personally done. It includes wrongs done by husbands and wives, by brothers and sisters, by business associates, by neighbors and by friends. Alexander Pope once wrote, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” He was right.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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We serve a God of miracles and wonders. Miracles like “Dead Raisings” happen even today.

Is it a medical mystery or a miracle?

A South Florida man pronounced dead from a massive heart attack and then brought back to life. His doctor says the man was raised from the dead by a simple prayer. Seven’s Louis Aguirre has the story.

Dr. Chauncey Crandall isn’t your usual doctor. The world-renowned cardiologist is a man of medicine and science, but he’s also a man of faith.

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Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

Shortly after Dallas Seminary was founded in 1924, the world began slipping into a financial crisis which became known as The Great Depression. Money was scarce, and it became evident that if God didn’t do something big, and soon, the creditors of the fledgling school were going to foreclose and take the property. And what do you do when there is a financial need? Some would write letters of financial appeal. Some would call their donors and hit the panic button. But not the leadership of this school, which placed strong emphasis on the authority of the Word. They prayed. Nothing more? No, but they didn’t just pray. They really prayed.

Gathering in the office of the president, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, they asked God to undertake. Present in that prayer meeting was a man who had memorized most of the New Testament while he was still a teenager, Harry Ironside, a kind of no-nonsense, get-straight-to-the-point sort of person. His prayers were no different. “Lord,” he began, pausing somewhat like a locomotive when it emits the first great whoosh of steam, ready to start moving in great momentum. Continuing he said, “we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are Thine. Please sell some of them and send the money.”

They were still praying when a lanky cowboy, weathered from the outdoors, with callused hands, and wearing cowboy boots, walked into the business office of the school and announced, “I just sold two carloads of cattle…. I’ve been trying to make a business deal but it fell through, and I feel compelled to give the money to the seminary. I don’t know if you need it or not, but here is the check!”

The young woman, knowing that a prayer meeting was going on at that very moment in the office of the president, took the check and gently knocked on the door where the group prayed. Dr. Chafer took the check and immediately noticed that the amount of the check was exactly the amount which they needed—neither more nor less. “Harry,” he said, “God sold the cattle!”

Long ago, the Psalmist recorded the words of the Creator, who said, “For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains!” (Psalm 50:10, Living Bible).

Question: If God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, how do we, like the men who prayed in the office of Dr. Chafer, get God to send a few our way? Five guidelines—all from Scripture—answer that question:

Guideline #1: Pray specifically. Take time to go back to Matthew 6 and study the passage we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” Then study the prayers of Jesus and what He asked for. He prayed for specifics. If you need the hindquarter of beef, then ask the Lord specifically for that. If you need $50,000, ask God for a specific amount.

Guideline #2: Pray persistently. Even Jesus in Gethsemane prayed the same thing three times. Then, when the Spirit of God witnesses with your heart that God has heard you, thank Him in advance for your answer.

Guideline #3: Pray biblically. Knowing that God has given you many promises in His Word, and gently reminding Him of what He has promised, brings a connection between you and God’s goodness.

Guideline #4: Pray in faith. James says anyone who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person gets nothing from the Father. (See James 1:6).

Guideline #5: Pray earnestly. James says, “The down-to-business prayer of a man who has been justified brings great gain” (James 5:16, personal translation).

A closing thought: When you ask God for one of the cattle on the hills, better fire up the barbecue or start looking for a buyer.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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