With the water rising, dark clouds still coming and the spectre of spending the night floating in flood water; the man was sitting on his rooftop praying for God to rescue him. In the past 15 minutes a flash flood had filled the house up, water on the brink of the roof. With dusk quickly turning into dark, the hopes of a rescue were slim at best.
Then out of the gray horizon, cutting through the pouring rain, a rescue boat arrived! The man refused to board the rescue boat saying, “God said he will rescue me. Go on and rescue others. I am safe and trust God’s promise.” So the rescue boat left with its rescuers bewildered by the man’s choice. Two hours later, with the water above and beyond the roof the man was sitting on, a rescue chopper spotted the man clinging for his life on the flimsy Aluminum TV antenna. The rescuers were rebuffed, yet again, by the man with the same words he confidently spoke earlier, “God said he will rescue me. Go on and rescue others. I am safe and trust God’s promise.”
An hour later the man found himself fighting to survive in the raging river-like flood waters. It finally overwhelmed him and the man found himself being interviewed at heaven’s gates. He asked “Why did God not rescue me? I held on to his word faithfully and trusted he would rescue me from the flood.”
“I sent you the people in the rescue boat and you refused their help,” God began. “I figured maybe you needed a bigger vehicle to rescue you so I sent the people in the chopper yet you refused their help as well.”
If you use Social Media Sites, you’d be accustomed to seeing posts that request for prayers and praying for miracles to happen. You would usually also see comments that support the poster that the prayers will be answered or the miracles and blessing will be theirs.
This got me thinking.
If I simply pray and not “respond” and “take action” to what my higher power may be telling me, then my offer and actual prayer is an empty gong. If I can “BE” and take action but choose NOT TO, for whatever reason, then I am a hypocrite.
“I’ll pray for your kids healing.”
“I’ll pray for your intention/blessing.”
If I don’t act on the urging of God on something I can make a difference in, then I’ve not really done my part. Say a devastating flood hits and people need your presence and whatever used clothes you can afford to let go of. If you say “I’ve said a prayer for them” instead of being a living extension of God and be a response to the prayer people are waiting for, then you too have not done your part. The act of being an answered prayer to someone is better than the act of simply praying for someone else. If you can help and make a difference in other’s lives, you should do it.