Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. James 1:5-8
Because my siblings were all grown and had left home, I grew up as an only child from age twelve. My parents, my aunt, my grandmother and I lived together in the same house, so I never felt like a motherless child. My dad retired early, having given all he had in a pastoral effort to prop up dysfunctional people in a small congregation. He was determined to lay down his life day after day for people. Even after he retired, he and my mom immediately became involved in ministry in the community.
One of their ministries was as volunteers at JEC, a state detention facility for youth. I was given opportunity to go with them and lead Bible studies on Sundays in one of the boys’ dorms. As a teen, I delighted in leading a Bible study for incarcerated youth. It was exciting. But, when I found out that some of the children weren’t delinquent – some were locked up because the state didn’t have any place else to put them – I was incensed. God used the stories of two boys in the detention center to change my life.
Eddie was there for skipping school, and Steve, in the bed next to Eddie, was there for killing his foster mother. While I was only fifteen myself, I knew something was very wrong with a situation in which truancy and killing resulted in the same response from the state.
Indignantly, I went to the director of the center, Mr. Ed West. “Mr. West, I understand why Steve needs to be here. He killed his foster mother. But why does Eddie have to be locked up? Why isn’t he at the Presbyterian Children’s Home across the street?”
“That’s a good question,” Mr. West began, “but it would be better for you to hear the answer from Don McKenzie.” So, I made an appointment with Mr. McKenzie, the director of the Presbyterian Home. My father drove me to the appointment and waited while I talked with this dear Christian man.
I told him the story of these two boys and asked again, “Why is Eddie at JEC? Why can’t he be here with you?”
Mr. McKenzie’s eyes grew moist as he opened the drawer on the left side of his desk. With understated drama, he set a stack of manila folders between us and said: “I have fifty beds. They’re all full. Here are fifty more children who have applied and been approved for admission. Every time there’s a vacancy, I go through these files and find the child who would best fill that spot. If I had twice as much space tomorrow, I’d have it filled. I always keep a waiting list and unfortunately your friend Eddie is not on this list.”
It was my first glimpse of the mountain of casualties America’s epidemic of divorce and drugs is producing. In the years that have followed, I have observed the tragic, multiplying problem of children who have never received parenting producing children who grow up never knowing how to be parents either.
As Don McKenzie and I prayed together, we both shed plenty of tears, and those tears watered a seed God planted in my heart that day. “God, you’ve got to do something for these children.”
God likes it when we pray. Jesus saw the crowds and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
The next thing that happens in this story is Jesus saying to His disciples, “Okay, I’m sending you out.” Is this really what the disciples wanted? Did they want Him to send them or someone else?
We think our prayers are in order to get God to do what we think needs to be done. God says, “No, I want you to pray so you’ll begin to catch a vision for what I want you to do.”
God gave me the opportunity to see a need when I was fifteen years old, to be moved by that need, and to begin to pray and cry out to God, “Father, you have to do something.”
I don’t know what happened to Eddie and Steve, but in their own way, they played a pivotal role in the plan God had for my life. They moved me to pray!
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Joshua near Jericho with sword in hand, Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” The angel replied, “Neither. But, as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Joshua fell facedown in reverence. (Joshua 5:13-14) God is not here in order to do our bidding; rather we need to get in step with what God is doing. We are His servants.
I didn’t talk God into giving me a children’s home; rather, God gave me the privilege of doing what He wanted me to do. While the Bible says we are saved by grace through faith, the Bible also says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God, who knows everything about us, has prepared good works beforehand for us to do. And, God’s plan is good, pleasing and perfect.
Many of us have our own agendas, including accomplishing great things for God. Even though we know our agendas are hollow, we are sometimes tempted to posture in private and group prayer in an attempt to control God with our agendas; instead, we need to be totally honest with God. He already knows everything about us – our selfishness, mixed motives and inadequacies. Instead of asking God to bless our agenda, we need to obediently follow God’s agenda. Only God’s purposes will stand. “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”
As we talk honestly with our heavenly Father in prayer, He will show us the truth about ourselves. He will lovingly reveal our sin, and set us on His path. As we see who we really are, and what we are really doing, we will be amazed that He wants to use us anyway. Do you want to know the truth? Are you ready to follow God’s agenda?
