My Reasons for Believing in Christ, A Prayer Story 1 of 4 Can God put words in your mouth? The prayer came from my mouth, the words passed through my lips, and although Linda said my prayer was fantastic, my memory had no clue, not a one. If a million dollars were to be given to me for recalling just two words, it would be a lost million for all I can recall is one word, Amen. Traveling the entire USA visiting retread shops included Atlanta, Georgia, and since there were many shops in that territory, our stay has been usually a delightful three weeks, and we loved it. We parked our RV at the KOA in Kennasaw, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. It was such a beautiful campground, perhaps more like a park or forest. You would seldom see the sun burst through the trees because they were huddled so close and the singing of birds was a delight along with the chattering of squirrels. The campsites were spaced far apart so it gave that real camping feeling. It was truly one of our favorite campgrounds in the entire USA and hopefully it is still in business. Luckily we found a nearby church we were especially fond of with a membership of around a hundred people. The sermons were truly enjoyable as they had a lot of meat to them so we felt we had learned something important, something we could use to make our life and marriage even better. I invited the minister to lunch a couple of times and enjoyed our talks. His belief in God was firm with a great foundation of knowledge and most importantly, he had a way of sharing his knowledge without making a person feel inferior. Did I mention he was a very interesting fellow? While his name is forgotten, he isn’t, and while this is my feeling about him, it wasn’t the feelings of perhaps half of his congregation because many felt his sermons were too hard. It was a church split. Of course, I wanted to give my input beings I’m a very opinionated person. Thinking of all the cool things I could share with the church and how I could help them with all their problems, I had many helpful answers in my head. While in prayer one morning before church, I said “Lord, if I were to be called for the opening prayer, this is what I would say”. Then I recited a long prayer that I was so proud of. I’m sure it included what a great service the minister gave and how it was important to all stand together as one church, not divided. And, if the congregation worked together, they would have a stronger church. Also, it was an honor to attend their church and much more. While praying is a form of talking to the Lord, and I’m sure he heard me, as usual He had nothing to say and wasn’t it expected. However, in the end He did have other plans. Keep in mind, I was a visitor to the church, not part of the congregation, so what were the odds I’d ever have the opportunity to share My important prayer? Well, low and behold, the minister began the service and it nearly took my breath away when suddenly he ask if I would say the opening prayer. You would think nervousness would have overwhelmed me, however, I jumped right up and began MY prayer. When finished, those words of mine couldn’t be recalled, not a word. When I ask Linda how I did, she said it was beautiful. My thoughts were all about me and what a great job I did, now wouldn’t it be nice to know what I said? Come to find out, opportunity does knock because, lucky me, the tapes of the sermon were sold at the door, which would include MY prayer. We bought a tape and I could hardly wait to hear myself. I carefully placed the jewel in an empty pocket and quickly proceeded to our blue Dodge van. I put the tape in the cassette player before my butt hit the seat, and guess what? It was BLANK! It was a long week waiting for the next Sunday, I had what is called, “ants in the pants”. All my thoughts that week were geared on purchasing another tape so I could hear myself. Just knowing we were returning to the same church the next week was very heartwarming. Sunday finally arrived, the excitement was overwhelming, why I almost danced up the stairs and nearly ran over the nice lady near the tape table because I was so anxious. Once again, I place it in a pocket all by itself, protecting it with my life if necessary. If the service was an hour, it seem like four. How time flies when you are having fun. When the service ended, I didn’t spend anytime to visit with friends, I was flying out the door. Linda was a distance behind me, in fact, I was in the van with the tape loaded, the play button pressed and then I waited. When Linda got in the van and took one look at me, she knew something was wrong. Yes, you guessed it, the tape was BLANK. My disappointment vanished almost instantly and was replaced with chills going up and down my spine. I realized the prayer I said was “His Prayer”, not mine. I’m sure God was sitting up there on a cloud someplace shaking his finger at me. I had been standing so straight and tall, possible with my head so full of myself and taking credit for my great prayer. Then I realized God put those words in my mouth and the feeling of stealing “His Words” came to mind. Since I couldn’t recall what I had said, I should have realized right then, not a week and two blank tapes later, the prayer wasn’t my prayer, it was Gods, so God did have another plan, as usual my plans sometimes forget God. So, can God put words in your mouth? I do believe so.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 23:56:05 +0000
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