She lives and works at Mount Herman, a picturesque conference center nestled in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And right now those mountains are being consumed by a massive wildfire that is burning out of control and threatening countless homes and businesses, including Mount Herman.
When I read her text, my heart ached for for everyone in the path of the fire (one of over 350 wildfires that are currently burning throughout California). Fire crews are working tirelessly to try and contain the blaze, but the fire is so much bigger than they can control. So she, along with so many others, are displaced from their homes and all they can do is wait and pray.
The Bible is full of examples of people who cry out to God, and He responds in miraculous fashion. One man even prayed for rain, and it came (1 Kings 18:41-46). And yet, when I got her text, my first thought wasn’t to cry out to God expectantly. To be honest, the prayer I offered up was pretty anemic, something along the lines of, “God, if you’re willing, it would be awesome if you sent some rain.” But truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much. After all, the weather report for that area was nothing but dry heat for the foreseeable future.
So it came as a bit of a shock when she texted back 20 minutes later with a screen shot of the weather report showing that it was, in fact, raining in Mount Herman.
Now, in no way am I trying to take credit for this movement of God. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only person she sent the text to. In fact, there were a whole lot of people praying around 6 PM on Sunday evening that God would once again open the heavens and shower the earth miraculously, and many of them had far more faith than I that He would respond.
But it reminds me that there is power in prayer. Despite the fact that the circumstances of life can often grow too great for us to control, it reminds me that there is one who stands above our circumstances and is not overcome by them. And He invites us to call upon Him, to cast our burdens upon Him and look to Him for help.
So don’t hesitate to bring your needs to God. He’s not too busy to hear your cry. And don’t underestimate the power of prayer. It changes things. Sometimes it even changes the weather.
