Choose your friends very carefully

 The winter of 1997 found Ruth and I living on the island of Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela in what is called the West Indies.  

I was asked to go down there and help a congregation build a new church building.

Ruth and I have been traveling the World for over 40 years either building buildings for Christian organizations, teaching, or helping plant new churches.

Every place that we have visited contributed to our growth and maturity as Christians.

Thinking back to the early days of our ministry I am convicted of how immature we were. Our zeal and passion to use our gifts made up for our lack of maturity.

Some of the places stretched our faith and some places confirmed our faith.

On most of our trips abroad I wrestled with some kind of sickness and this place contributed to my suffering as well.

I was busy working in the hot tropical sun each day. My assigned helper was a Black man by the name of Lenny. As the winter worn on and my exposure to the sun continued I used to tease Lenny that my tan was catching up to his.

On the weekends and some evenings I was busy ministering the Word in church or small groups.

One evening Ruth and I were asked to minister to a group that met in one of the church members home.

It was about a 1/2 mile walk from where we were staying and this evening I was sick.

I had no enthusiasm  for walking that far let alone ministering.

When we got there we saw about 20 people waiting for us.

When I got up to speak I said something very unusual. I even surprised myself a little when I said it. Here is what came out of my mouth, "I don't feel well this evening, as a matter of fact, I feel terrible. I would like a few of you to come up here and pray for me., but, let me qualify my request. If you are not 100% sure that because of your prayers I will get a healing touch from the Lord, stay in your seats. I don't want anyone praying for me with unbelief or doubt in your hearts."

Needless to say that weeded out most of the volunteers. Only 2 or 3 people came forward and I was indeed touched.

I was able to minister to that group and 
Ruth and I walked home that night both strong and encouraged.

Now, I have thought of that experience many times since then and have found president in the scriptures to substantiate my request that night.

In Mark 5:21-43 we find a situation where a report came to Jesus that a church leader by the name of Jaris had a very sick daughter and he requested Jesus to come pray for her so she would recover. 

As he was on his way to the house of the church leader word come that the girl had died so he needn't bother come come.

He continued anyway and as he approached the house he heard a lot of commotion with people crying and wailing loudly.

When Jesus insisted on seeing the girl the crowd laughed at him for believing that he could do anything about the situation, after all, the girl is dead.

Then he did something interesting. He order everyone out of the house except the parents of the girl and Peter, James, and John.

After the doubters had cleared out he walked up to the girl, took her by the hand, and said, "Little girl, get up." At his Word, the 12 year old girl got up and walked over to the kitchen and had something to eat.

An incident in the next chapter of Mark, 6 verse 5 confirms how important an atmosphere of faith is.

Jesus returns to his hometown and because of the scarcity of faith in that community his ability to perform miracles was very limited. He could only help a few sick folks.

So, what can  we learn from this? When you are praying for and expecting a miracle, choose your prayer partners very carefully.

Here is the zinger: Would Matthew 7:6 relate to the subject that we are talking about? Keep this in mind, the context of Matthew 7:6 is EFFECTIVE PRAYER.

Extra reading  Hebrews 11:6   Hebrews 3:12 & 19     James 1:6-9