This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything.
On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. We didn't even realize it. It sounds like the story of my life. James, I remember this remark.
Well, you know, that is exactly what it is. It is the story of our lives. If you think about it, you know, thinking about early childhood is kind of a good analogy for this because, you know, no matter how long we live, we're still in the early childhood of eternity, right?
Oh, wow, yeah. Think about how God took care of us before we were even aware of it. You know, if you lived in a home, for example, with loving parents or, you know, if somebody grabbed your hand right before you were to run out in front of a car in the street. I mean, how many times has God taken care of us and blessed us? Scripture tells us He knit us together in our mother's womb. And so, you know, there's just so much to this to realize that God has been there in the past, He's with us now, and He'll be there in the future. And looking at this is important because it can make a great difference for our prayers. Oh, yeah.
And, you know, you've got plenty examples of that as well, right? Yeah, you know, as I was thinking about this topic, I thought about something that happened in our life several years ago when our son was wrestling with his heroin addiction, and he was living with his sister about two and a half hours away. And unfortunately, as you know, will often happen with Hicks, he found out that she had some cash, and he ended up stealing about $2,000 from her. This was money that she had been saving in tips where she was working. And anyhow, she finds out about it and really rightfully kicks him out.
He had, you know, spent the money on drugs and my wife, knowing that if he's just out on the streets, it's going to go from bad to worse, so we need to do something quickly and get him home so that we can decide what next. She goes down to get him and, you know, eventually finds him and brings him home and as they're in the car, it's late at night, you know, it's close to midnight, and they're on the highway in this old diesel Mercedes that we used to have. And kind of a loud car. And the amazing thing as she's driving along, you know, she's just grieving in her spirit. Jeff is passed out there in the front seat and she's grieving because of what he's done to himself, what he's become.
And also because her children are at odds with each other and, you know, it just seems like everything is falling apart. And all of a sudden as she's driving along, the car gets amazingly quiet. Supernaturally quiet.
And I write about this in the book Jeff and I wrote together, Hope Lies Ahead, but this is one of those experiences that is a once in a lifetime kind of thing. The car gets so quiet, it jars her, she kind of looks around to see what's going on. And as she looks, you know, she turns her eyes to the side of the car. And God opens her eyes, and she sees these beings, what she saw were angels. They were these beings that were clothed in these long white flowing robes and their hair was long and their faces were resolute, but they weren't threatening, she wasn't frightened by them.
They were actually holding the car aloft as she's going down the freeway. It's one of those things that, as she's telling me about it later, she breaks up in tears. And every time she has told me about it, she tears up about it, because she was actually carried by angels, or accompanied by angels in such a way that she knew it for several miles.
And this was in, you know, one of the darkest periods of her life as a mom, of our life together. And it was just a beautiful reminder that God is there, God is there. You know, even in these hard and difficult places. And the reason why that helps us when we pray is, just like last week we talked about the need to have faith. You know, this is a place where we can exercise active faith and say, God, you know, I'm not seeing it, I'm not feeling it, but I praise you because I know you're near. And so doing that, you know, it helps us realize, it helps us draw one step closer to Him.
And that's always good. Yeah, and it's a faith issue too, really, when you think about it. Like, you know, do we believe He really is? And He clearly is. But are we living that way?
Are we acting that way? Are we in communion with Him as if that is a fact? And it's reminders like that that really help us to see, wow.
And there's times when, you know, honestly, I don't feel like it. Right, but that's the important thing. As you put it, those reminders, I think we can all look back over our lives and say, yeah, there he was, and there he was. And I certainly didn't know it at the time, but he was there. And you can see how he worked the circumstances out. And this is such an important theme of the Christian faith, because again, it has to do with the providence of God, the mercy, the kindness of God.
And also, often, He's doing things in us. Let's pray, Father, thank you that you are there, that you really are near. Thank you, Lord, that we can trust you, even when we can't see you or feel you. So Father, by faith, we're going to do that right now. We're going to do that today and tomorrow. And we'll continue to because you will hold us up. And we praise you for it. In Jesus name. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
