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Early the other Sunday morning I was praying for our associate pastor (call him “Andrew”) who would be preaching that morning. I was praying the “usual” things, good things, like conviction, power, strength, and ...

And then it hit me: I was not really thinking about what I was praying. I was just praying on “auto-pilot”. I paused, and admitted to myself that I didn’t know what Andrew needed that morning.

I waited a moment, then began to pray that Andrew would grow in dependence on God, and that whatever his circumstance he would know the loving presence of his heavenly Father.

A few hours later, we were in church. No Andrew. Instead, when the time came, the senior pastor went to the pulpit and explained that he had had a call from Andrew’s wife about 7:30 that morning ... roughly the time I was praying, in fact! “This is the kind of call you don’t want!”, she had said. Andrew was quite ill in bed, and there was no way he would be preaching that morning. Could the senior pastor step into the breach?

Well, he did. And the sermon was powerful.

I took several lessons from this. One is that God is always doing more than we think he is, always doing things beyond our imagining. I took comfort for Andrew: God’s hand was on him for good (as it often says in Nehemiah!), even if outward circumstances might not have looked that way. Personally, I was greatly encouraged in prayer. With eyes of faith, I can see God directing my prayers: my praying isn’t simply me talking to the ceiling, but it really is communing with God and cooperating with his work in the world.

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