His love has no limit, His grace has no measure.
9. God's Answers to Prayer
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure.
His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again.
ANNIE JOHNSON FLINT
I KNOW MANY people who trust the Lord for their eternal safety, but they have no faith for the cares of every day. They would find it easy to die, for they know God has promised them a mansion in heaven. In fact, some of them would like to die, just to escape this world. They have no faith for today—just for tomorrow. They do not see that their daily problems are the material from which God builds His miracles.
Once, when I was a little girl, I remember coming to my father with a broken doll. He was busy in the watch shop repairing clocks and watches, but he stopped what he was doing and took special pains to fix my ragged old doll's broken arm. Why did he take this so seriously? Because he saw the doll through the eyes of his little girl. Your heavenly Father loves you. He sees your problems through your eyes. He loves us all and understands our problems. He cares.
When I was in the German concentration camp at Ravensbruck, one bitter winter morning I woke up with a bad cold. My nose was running. Back in Holland I would have been able to adjust to a cold, because I would have a tissue or a hankie to blow my nose. But in the concentration camp, and without a hankie, I felt I could not stand it.
"Well, why don't you pray for a hankie?" Betsie asked. I started to laugh. There we were, with the world falling apart around us. We were locked in a camp where thousands of people were being executed each week, being beaten to death, or put through unbearable suffering—and Betsie suggests I pray for a hankie! If I were to pray for anything, it would be for something big, not something little, like that.
But before I could object, Betsie began to pray. "Father, in the name of Jesus I now pray for a hankie for Corrie, because she has a bad cold."
I shook my head and walked away. Very shortly after, I was standing by the window when I heard someone call my name. I looked out and spotted a friend of mine, another prisoner, who worked in the hospital.
"Here you are," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Take it. I bring you a little present."
I opened the little parcel, and inside was a handkerchief! I could hardly believe my eyes. "How did you know? Did Betsie tell you? Did you know I had a cold?"
She shrugged. "I know nothing. I was busy sewing handkerchiefs out of an old piece of sheet, and there was a voice in my heart saying, "Take a hankie to Corrie ten Boom.' So, there is your gift. From God."
That pocket handkerchief, made from an old piece of sheet, was a message from heaven for me. It told me that there is a heavenly Father who hears, even if one of His children on this little planet prays for a tiny little thing like a hankie. Not only does He hear, but He speaks to another of His children and says, "Bring a hankie to Corrie ten Boom."
Why should I worry, when I can pray? We are God's children—His own children. Here is an old and well-known story that taught me a deep lesson.
A boy made a little ship. It was a work of art, and he had put many weeks of work into its construction. When it was ready, he took it to the river, and it could really float. He held the rope tightly in his hand, but suddenly a strong wind swept the boat away with such force that the rope broke. The river was deep and wild, and the boy knew that he had lost his ship.
After a few weeks, to his great joy, he saw his ship in the show window of a shop. He went to the shopkeeper and told him that the ship belonged to him, that he had made it. But the man said, "Only the person who gives me the price I am asking for it will have the ship."
The boy went home crying and told his father, who advised him, "I think you must try to make some money and buy the ship."
The boy worked all his spare time until he had enough money and bought his toy from the man. With his ship in his hand, he came home and said, "It's twice mine! I made it, and I bought it."
Can we trust the Lord Jesus, who made us and bought us? We surely can. We are twice His! :
JESUS IS VICTOR
A minister in Russia gave me another good illustration. Many people lived in a large apartment house. All the junk was taken to the basement and it was overfull.
In a corner stood a harp that was broken, and nobody was able to repair it.
Once a tramp asked if he could spend the night in the house. "There is such a severe snowstorm. May I stay here?"
"We have no room for you, but you could sleep in the basement." They emptied a corner and put some straw on the floor.
After some hours, the owner of the harp suddenly heard music in the basement. She ran downstairs and saw the tramp playing the harp.
"How did you repair my harp? I could not find anybody who was able to do it." The tramp answered, "When I was young I made this harp, and when you make something, you can repair it."
Who made you? Do you think He can repair you?
The No Answer
When Betsie and I were in Ravensbruck, she became very ill. I took her to the prison hospital and she asked me, "Corrie, please pray with me. Ask the Lord Jesus to heal me. He has said, 'If you shall lay hands upon the sick they shall be healed.' Please do that for me."
I prayed and laid hands on her, and both Betsie and I trusted the Lord for healing. The next morning, I ran from the barracks and looked through the window of the hospital and found Betsie's bed was empty. I ran from window to window, until I finally saw her body. They were getting ready to take it to the crematorium. It was the darkest moment of my life.
Then, just a few days later, | was summoned to the prison office. For some reason, I was being released from prison. Surely it was a clerical error, but whatever the cause, I was free to go. It was a miracle of God.
When I came to the office, I discovered nobody there knew that Betsie was dead. So I asked, "Is my sister also free?"
"No. She stays here until the end of the war." "Can I stay with her?" The official became furious and shouted at me. "Disappear! Get out of here!" Suddenly I saw God's side of what had happened. Suppose Betsie had gotten better and I had to leave her behind? I would have been forced to return to Holland and leave her alone in that horrible camp. I could not have stood it. But she had been released from the concentration camp and was now enjoying all the glory of heaven. I walked out of the camp that day praising and thanking the Lord for that unanswered prayer. Yet it really wasn't unanswered. It was answered in God's way, not mine.
So often we pray and then fret anxiously, waiting for God to hurry up and do something. All the while God is waiting for us to calm down, so He can do something through us.
There is a vast difference between prayer in faith and faith in prayer. Faith in prayer is very common. Prayer in faith is so uncommon that our Lord questions if He will find any of it on earth when He comes back. Prayer in faith is a commanded duty; it is always reverently making known our requests unto God in full confidence that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us; and that according to our faith an answer to our prayers will be granted us.
Praying in faith comes from an abiding faith in the Person prayed to—the confidence is in Him. It is based on a knowledge of who He is, and on a trusted conviction that He is worthy to be trusted. Praying in faith is the act of a simple-hearted child of God. Can we teach ourselves to pray in faith? We can indeed train ourselves, but the joyful experience is that it is the Spirit of God who does the job. So give room in your heart for the Holy Spirit.
From My Notebook
Prayer is opening up our sluicegates to the mighty ocean of God.
BISHOP WESTCOTT
Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees. The host of hell can that one rout, Who meets him with a praiseful shout.
The Holy Spirit does not give a clear blueprint of the rest of your life, but only of a moment, one by one.
We can't solve problems for others. We can introduce them to the Lord.
As acamel kneels before his master to have him remove his burden at the end of the day, so kneel each night and let the Master take your burden.
If a care is too small to be turned into a prayer, it is too small to be made into a burden.
Here then is my charge: First, supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings should be made on behalf of all men....
1 Timothy 2:1 PHILLIPs
Prayer is the same as the breathing of air for the lungs. Exhaling makes us get rid of our dirty air. Inhaling gives clean air. To exhale is to confess, to inhale is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
You should therefore be most careful, my brothers, that there should not be in any of you that wickedness of heart which refuses to trust, and deserts the cause of the living God.
Hebrews 3:12 PHILLIPS
NOR tISt
WE CONTINUE TO share in all that Christ has for us so long as we steadily maintain, until the end, the trust with which we began. God's love for us never changes—of this we must be confident.
We sin, and our sin comes between our souls and God, as a dark cloud comes between the sun and the earth, and our communion with Him is broken. We are unable to live in the enjoyment of God's love for us when sin stands in our way. Our temptation to sin by worrying comes from the evil one, but we must remember that he can only come through an open door. Calling on Jesus' name sends him back, along with any of his brood, because they hate and fear the name of their Conqueror. They get away from the sound of that name as fast as they ean.
Our fearless testimony makes the power of the blood of Jesus effective. There is great need for overcomers in this world, and our Lord earnestly calls for men to follow in His steps and in His strength. He won the decisive victory over our enemies, but everyone must make that victory his own on the battlefield of his own life. In Jesus' great name, we can. By His grace, we will.
Our worry is often due to physical causes. Overwork always makes a sensitive spirit worry and hurry, which in turn overworks our nerves, until we see things in a distorted manner. It is a vicious circle, because worry usually makes us keep working harder, until we finally drop from exhaustion—physical and mental. At that point, we go to God for help, but we have already begun to listen to the devil, so we go to God with a sense of inferiority, which is the devil's message!
Some years ago, I had a very difficult problem and did not see the answer. I talked it over with a good friend. We looked at each other, and on both of our faces there was an expression of defeat. Suddenly my friend stood up. She hit the table with her hand and said, "Do we really think that the enormous power that caused Jesus to come out of the grave is not enough for our problem?" Then I saw the smallness of my faith. Yes, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is willing to work in you.
But if we want to be victorious over our fears through Jesus' victory and strength, we must also be obedient. It was Jesus' obedience that defeated the enemy at every turn, until the climax of Calvary was reached.
Confessed Sins
Once we realize that fear, anxiety, and worry are sins, and then confess these sins to God, what happens? The Bible says, "He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west" (Psalms 103:12). "I've blotted out your sins; they are gone like morning mist at noon! Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free" (Isaiah 44:22). "But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong..." (1 John 1:9).
Did you ever see a cloud again, after it had disappeared? No, the cloud that appears afterward is a different one. We do not honor God by asking forgiveness a second time for the same sin. Say, "God has beaten this thing. He had forgiven this sin and forgotten it. I can do the same in His strength." Remember that the victory has been won. Claim that victory as your own, and it will be your own in fact. There is far more victory within your reach than you have realized. Reach out your hand and take as your very own what has been done for you. Reckon yourself dead to the sin of worry.
Say with Paul, "... 1 can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power" (Philippians 4:13). Commit the past to God, and don't be enchained with it again.
As He cleanses our cups, He fills them to overflowing with His Holy Spirit. We must remember that our cups can be kept clean. Everything that the light of God shows as sin, we can confess and carry to the fountain of water of life, and it is gone, both from God's sight and from our hearts.
A little girl broke a beautiful antique cup. Crying, she brought it to her mother. The mother saw that the little one was sorry, and said, "I forgive you. Throw the pieces in the garbage can."
The next day, the little girl saw the pieces in the garbage can. She took them and brought them to her mother again. "I am sorry, Mother, that I broke your cup yesterday," she cried.
The mother replied, "Leave that in the garbage can, where it belongs. Remember my forgiveness." A confessed sin is dead. Give it a burial.
"Hallelujah!" Handel's chorus was ae through the evening air. "Hallelujah! And He shall reign for ever and ever.'
I had never heard it sung so perfectly and in such beautiful surroundings. We were in Japan. The moon and stars were as clear as they can only be in that country. Far away we even saw the white peaks of Mount Fuji.
"Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
I had never heard it sung a capella, without musical accompaniment. It was as if angels were singing.
I knew the girls. They were the students for whom I had been holding a daily
Bible study for the last two weeks, and they were going to the same hall as I, where I was expected to answer questions.
That evening I had to listen most to their worry about sins. I prayed that the Lord would give me a clear answer for them. They were Christian girls, but what a lack of joy they had about the finished work of Jesus at the cross. I asked them a question. "When you rehearsed the 'Hallelujah Chorus,' did you make mistakes?"
The girls giggled. Japanese girls giggle much.
"Many." "But when you were singing outside in that Japanese moonlit evening, you did not think of those mistakes, otherwise you might have repeated them. Girls, never wait to confess your sins. The devil accuses us night and day. I will tell you something. Sunday morning I spoke in your church."
"Yes, we remember it. You gave us much, but it was so short."
"T thought the same, and your pastor had promised me a long time. I asked him, 'Because I can speak only once in your church, give me as long as possible. Make your preliminaries short.' He promised me, but did not do it. We started the service at 10 o'clock, and at 11 o'clock he was still busy with the Book of Common Prayer. That moment the Holy Spirit showed me that I was very impatient. I knew that that was a sin, and at 11 o'clock I brought it to the Lord and asked forgiveness. When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us with His blood. Suddenly I saw that the words of the Book of Common Prayer were not just preliminaries, but truths that the Lord uses for His honor.
"Why did I tell you that it was 11 o'clock? Because the devil accuses us before God and our own hearts. It is possible that he said to God at 11:05, 'Do You see Corrie'ten Boom in Your church and how impatient she is?' I believe that God answered him, 'I already know it. Five minutes ago Corrie told me. It is forgiven and cleansed.'
"Girls, be sure that you are always five minutes earlier than the accuser. Then you lose your worry about your sins. The reason Jesus came to earth was to save sinners. He died for you, so that you could be forgiven, and He lives for you and in you by His Holy Spirit, to make you overcomers. When you worry about your sins it is because you know them through the accuser who has told you, "That sin is typically you. That is your nature, and you will remain like that your whole life. There is no hope for you.'
"The devil, the accuser, is a liar. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, it is always in the floodlight of the finished work of Jesus at the cross. He tells you: 'Exactly for these sins Jesus died. Confess and be cleansed.'
"Do you remember what I taught you this week—what the Bible says about repented sins? 'As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us' [see Psalms 103]. He throws them into the depths of the sea, forgiven and forgotten, and to warn the accuser, He puts a sign saying No Fishing Allowed. Girls, instead of worrying about your sins, sing again, 'Hallelujah! King of kings and Lord of lords.'"
It sounded even more beautiful than when I had heard it outside, but this time
I saw the happy faces, some still wet with tears.
The Word of God
God's promises were never meant to be thrown aside as waste paper. He intended that they should be used. God's gold is not miser's money, but is minted to be traded with. Nothing pleases our Lord better than to see His promises put into circulation; He loves to see His children bring them up to Him, and say, "Lord, do as You have said."
Charles H. Spurgeon
We deny the work of Jesus Christ and stand powerless before the enemy if we doubt the integrity of the Word of God. The bank account of the Bible is not frozen.
Someone told me, "In the Bible there are seventeen thousand promises." I don't know if that is true, but even if there were only seventeen, the quality is so great that the quantity is not too important.
... He has given you the whole world to use, and life and even death are your servants. He has given you all of the present and all of the future. All are yours, and you belong to Christ, and Christ is God's.
1 Corinthians 3:22, 23
When you check your inventory of blessings from God, it shows you have received good measure, pressed down and running over. Do not say, "I am too great a sinner to appropriate God's promises. Perhaps good Christians may do that, but not I." God always hears a prayer of faith. Put all your needs on the table and then say thank You.
Once a factory owner had a very expensive, complicated machine that he needed for his work. It broke down, and there was nobody who could repair it. The owner sent a telegram to the machine factory: "Send an expert." The very next day, an unimpressive man arrived at the airport. The owner sent another telegram to protest that the man they had sent was unsatisfactory. He wore old clothing, he seemed very uneducated—the owner was not at all happy with him. The answer that came back from the machine factory was, "That man is the designer of your machine."
Don't you think our own Creator can find the answers to our problems? Jesus is able to untangle all the snarls in your soul, to banish all complexes, and to transform even your fixed habit patterns. All you must do is trust Him.
From My Notebook
A DYING OLD man said, "I am too sick to remember one promise of God. But I don't worry, because God does not forget them."
If the enemy cannot keep you from working, then he comes up behind you and pushes you and tries to kill you with overwork.
When the devil can't make you bad, he makes you busy. Elijah was so sure of God that he added difficulties by throwing water over the altar. We, in our unbelief, try to help God.
In the forest fire, there is always one place where the fire cannot reach. It is the place where the fire has already burned itself out. Calvary is the place where the fire of God's judgment against sin burned itself out completely. It is there that we are safe.
The strength we claim from God's Word does not depend on circumstances. Circumstances will be difficult, but our strength will be sufficient.
Your strength, my weakness—here they always meet, When I lay down my burden at Your feet; The things that seem to crush will in the end Be seen as rungs, on which I did ascend!
Not one sparrow (What do they cost? Two for a penny?) can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't worry! You are more valuable to him than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29-31
If you make a compromise with surrender, you can remain interested in the abundant life, all the riches of freedom, love, and peace, but it is the same as looking at a display in a shop window. You look through the window but do not go in and buy. You will not pay the price—Surrender.