faith like potatoes and Abraham

Just this morning, I was reading through James, and the Holy Spirit was leaping the words of the pages of my Bible, making verses that I've read through many times before come to life. I don't know HOW God's Word, not matter where I'm led, continues to speak right to the heart of where I am: from the heart of my problem to the heart of His solution. It chisels away at my inward bend, revamps my attitude, takes away my breath with praise, stabilizes my feet on my Firm Foundation.

I've been feeling HUNGRY, lonely, insecure, human, and been feeling frustrated.

So I open the Word to the next chapter, and it is James 1...

"Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials...

If you lack wisdom, ask God, who will give it to you generously....

Ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind....

Every good thing is from above, coming from the Father with whom there is NO variation or shifting shadow....

Prove yourself to be a DOER of the Word, not just a delusional hearer...

Keep yourself unstained by the world...

Wisdom that comes from Him is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, FULL of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy...

Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you...

Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord...

To one who knows the right thing to do, and yet does not do it, to him it is a sin...

The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit."

I've been thinking about these things all day, especially about having FAITH. NOT the kind of faith that I'm comfortable with, the "Everything will turn out ok" faith, but the "It did not rain on the earth for 3 years and six months" rain.

Then, for no reason, we decided tonight for 'date night' to finally watch a movie Troy and Trent sent in:

It is based on the book, which is the true story of a South African farmer who comes to know the Lord and is transformed by Him. From miracle rains, to a woman raising from the dead, to potatoes planted in dust and growing to a huge crop with almost no rain whatsoever, time after time that the farmer stepped out on faith and trusted the Lord, really trusted Him, He did it, in His own time and in His own way.

Lori, I've been promising for weeks to tell you this story, and tonight's the night. One of our students, a humble and godly man from my first year of teaching, has been asking me to pray since the moment I met him for he and his wife. For years after marriage they had tried to get pregnant, but lost child after child during her pregnancy. After over 10 years of trying, God finally gave them a son, whom they appropriately named Samuel.

However, they were praying for another, and each day in class he would share a "special prayer request. Please pray that my wife would have a child!" For the first several weeks of class, I said, "OK, we will pray!" but after a while, I questioned the situation. I soon found out that his wife was 39, that they had lost countless numbers of children, and that they only had one son, Samuel, who was now 9 years old.

Sauvelt himself was in his 40's, and I "wisely" began to realize that he was NOT going to have another child. Nonetheless, he asked us to pray for a child every single day of class my entire first year of teaching. He moved on to second year, and yet continued to ask me to pray for a child each time I asked about his family. I wanted to tell him SO many times about the 'reality' of the situation...that his wife was too old, there was clearly a medical problem, and to be satisfied with the miracle of Samuel and to move his prayers on to something more...possible, more probable. I even prayed many times, "Lord, help Sauvelt to not be too disappointed, help his heart! He is so earnest and in love with you, take care that his heart isn't broken by not having another child!

First week of school this year, I see Sauvelt, 3rd year student. "Savuelt! So good to see you!" I greeted him sincerely. "How is your wife? Samuel?"

"Oh, they are very good in the name of Jesus," he told me. "My wife, she will have the baby soon."

I almost missed the miracle because of the matter-of-fact way in which he said it.

"WHAT??!?"

"The baby! She is many months pregnant and will have our baby soon, if the Lord wills!" he said again, sincerely and joyfully, but in a very matter-of-fact manner.

He has always believed that the Lord could do it, and therefore is not at all surprised that He DID do it...I felt small and foolish, as I do again now just recalling the story, at my pathetic, reality-sized faith.

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16

I would not have prayed for no rain for 3 years, would not have planted potatoes in the dust, would not ever have put aside baby clothes for Sauvelt. HOW MUCH could He have done by my faith that He hasn't ever been trusted or even asked to do?

Do you trust me? I am READY to see what that looks like...