That number above has two meanings. One, it’s the current balance of my student loans. Two, it’s an indicator of how powerful my God is. I fully believe and am faithfully praying that God provides all of the money needed for my student loans to be paid.
I’ve been convicted recently that I’m not faithful in prayer. Sure, I pray more than just at meals and before bedtime; I pray at different times throughout the day, but I don’t take enough time to simply sit and devote myself in prayer. Basically, that means that I rely more on my own power than I do on God’s power.
I’m currently reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. In the book, he talks about the story of Joshua and Jericho. You might be familiar with the story. Joshua leads an army to go to battle against Jericho. Unfortunately, Jericho has a massive wall fortifying its city. So what does God tell Joshua to do? Get a big battering ram? Shoot arrows over the wall? No. The master battle plan? For six days, circle around the city once a day. On the seventh day, circle around the city seven times. After the seventh circle, blow some trumpets.
That sounds like a horrible plan. Yet, it works. The Israelites blow the trumpets, and the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. And afterwards, neither Joshua nor the army of Israelites can take any credit for the victory; it was clearly all God’s power.
I’ve been in the midst of paying my student loans for about two years. How often have I spent time circling around the walls of student loans in prayer? Never. What do I do instead? I write blogs and put in a paragraph at the end of my blog asking for your money.
I’ve been relying on my own power. If I can just write a good enough blog, someone out there will be truly touched and will want to give me money. I’m sure there were some Israelites with a similar mindset: If I can just scale the wall and use my sword, we will definitely defeat Jericho.
It wasn’t true for the Israelites, and it’s not true for me. God wasn’t relying on the fighting skills of an Israelite to provide victory over Jericho, and He’s most certainly not relying on my blogging skills to provide victory over my student loans.
He just wants me to pray. Simply pray. Why? Because then when He does provide the 21,112.41 (and I have no doubt that He will), there will be no confusion about to whom the glory of the victory goes.
What about you? What’s your Jericho? Are you circling it in prayer, or are you trying to rely on your own strength to find victory?
(Photo courtesy of Stephanie Bernotas)
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
James 5:16-18
