And God Changed His Mind

I just finished one of the best inspirational books that I've read in a long time. It is called "And God Changed His Mind" by my favorite Christian author Brother Andrew. He also wrote "God's Smuggler" which is my all time favorite book. This incredible man has devoted his life to reaching oppressed Christians throughout the world by smuggling bibles into communist countries. It is hard to imagine living somewhere where you could be imprisoned or killed if you are caught with a bible. We have at least 3 in the house right now! He tells stories of Christians who pass a couple pages of the bible around to each other because that is all they have. Imagine having to meet in secrecy to have a church service and then your pastor only has a page or two of a bible to teach from. Thank God for our freedom of religion!
God Smuggler tells more about his journey becoming a missionary and amazing stories of the situations and people he encounters. And God Changed His Mind gives us insight into the power of prayer that allowed him to reach those people and change lives. Prayer is something that I have been confused about for awhile. I felt like it was vital for me to learn how to pray effectively in order to grow as a Christian. I have always wanted that close personal relationship with Jesus to where I feel like he is guiding me and speaking to me through the Holy Spirit but I have never really worked to get that or really known how. So I set off on a quest and it led me to this book that it has completely changed the way I pray. A couple of weeks ago I was praying for God to guide me and show me how He wants me to pray and I heard Him answer "Then get on your knees" and I did and as I prayed the tears rolled down my face and I felt a huge wall come tumbling down. That day I was praying for a sweet newborn baby who was clinging to life. Today she is off oxygen and able to nurse from her mother! Before when I would tell someone you are in my prayers it was more like a polite thing to say to them because I thought well God knows what is going to happen and He doesn't intervene so what is the point of asking him to? I still would pray but I didn't believe it would help. Now if I say that I'm going to pray know that I am on my knees pleading for God to intervene and help because I know that He can and that He does all the time. But if He doesn't I will accept that it is for reasons that I as a human am unable to understand. The old way of praying is precisely the way that satan would want us all to. There is constant spiritual warfare going on in this world and he knows what an impact prayer can have on it so he works in ways that we don't even see to keep us from praying effectively. For example I know that satan was responsible for making me feel guilty for asking God to help and because of it there has always been a distance in my relationship with God. I felt unworthy to ask the creator of the universe to change His mind. But God wants us to. He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him and to have faith in Him. Now if you pray for a million dollars the chances of Him answering that are pretty slim but if you ask Him for something that would be according to His will like healing a child with cancer or saving a nation from an oppressive leader I believe He will listen and answer. Even if the answer to that prayer is not what I would like I have faith that He heard it and answered it in His on way. I wanted to share because I'm so excited by this revelation and if anyone else has struggled with this I strongly encourage you to read this book...I'll even let you borrow it if you ask.

"You may ask for anything in My name and I will do it." John 14:14