Seize the Moment – Day 892
The God who Answers Prayer!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, August 26.
Do you believe in the power of God to answer prayers? How does that belief change the way you live and walk in your daily circumstances?
With his retelling of Israel’s history, the Chronicler was reminding the returning remnant that the same God who had brought them through judgment, would answer their prayers when they sought after Him with their whole hearts. An example of this is found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore him with pain.” Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested.
In the middle of nine chapters of genealogies, the Chronicler was teaching the importance of faith and hope to the Israelites, who were experiencing the pain and suffering of great loss. In the reality of the rubble of Jerusalem, with the walls torn down, and the temple destroyed, how were they going to muster the strength and courage to rebuild it all?
Only through faith in God! The rebuilding of Israel, and the reestablishing of the Promised Land’s borders, would only happen through faith. The people needed to understand that the same God who made the covenant with Israel, was the One who rescued them from exile, and now, would be with them as they rebuilt their nation, and He had the power to answer their prayers! The Chronicler communicates this truth with this short story of Jabez, a wholehearted man who called on God (Other stories in Chronicles that illustrate this point are found in 1 Chronicles 5:20-22; 2 Chronicles 20:6-12; 32:24.).
Seize the moment and seek God with your whole heart because He is still answering His people’s prayers today (Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7-12).