Hut after hut we were asked to pray for healings which to my human brain would seem pretty miraculous. We prayed for a paralyzed man, we prayed for an elderly lady with diabetes, and we prayed for a 50 year old woman to have a baby.
At the end of day 3 I found my faith and my trust challenged by the faith and hope of unbelievers.
They don’t know God, or his love, or his grace or mercy, they don’t know his faithfulness, yet they allow us to pray to God on their behalf for healings. For crazy things like to have a baby at age 50. They open their hearts and allow us to pray because some part of them believes, some part of them has hope that the God they don’t know has the power to answer. And He does.
God hears the cries of the afflicted and he answers.
“For he delivers the needy when he calls, The poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on
the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy” Psalm 72:12-13
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call in him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them” Psalm 145: 18-19
But wait do I believe that? How often do I take to God the things so big in my life? How often do I pray for him to heal my body before I seek the care from another mere human? I know God, his love, his grace and mercy, and I know He is faithful: Because of my relationship with Jesus I don’t just know these things either I experience them. So why doesn’t my prayer life reflect the sort of trust experiencing these things should bring?
Sometimes I think we forget how big the God we serve is. We learn that Jesus died on a cross for our sins and we give our hearts to God at this realization, in awe of the love He displayed on the cross. But as time goes on, we have a tendency to minimize who God is and the power He holds. Our human nature is prideful and thrives off independence, and consequently God ends up in a box.
What a beautiful reminder He’s given me through the poor and poverty stricken of Cambodia: that I can and should pray big things because my God is bigger.
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-31
Cambodia has a beautiful culture and the people have hearts of hospitality. It’s a country though in need of God and the hope He offers. I feel incredible blessed to be here, to be able to lay hands on and pray for the hearts of the ones who He calls sons and daughters. I feel even more blessed and humbled that He would use these people to remind me how to walk not only in obedience but in trust: unwavering trust.
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults; and with my song I give thanks to him” Psalm 28:7
