Praying the rain will stop

     I am later writing my post this week as I have been preoccupied with many things.  Foremost on my mind is the 50th anniversary of Lynwood Baptist Church.  I have only been here a few months but I am excited about this weekend and meeting some of the heroes in Lynwood's history.  It should be a great time of remembrance and celebration.  The only bad spot is that it has been raining basically for the last several days and today has been the worst.

     We have been planning for quite some time, but it looks like we will have to go to plan C now.  I hope we have one.  I have been praying for the rain to go away, but so far God has not decided that my prayer needs to be answered.  Maybe I am not in the right posture, or perhaps my words are not right.

     I remember hearing a story about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother.  Before they entered the store she told him, "Now you are not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don't even ask."

     She put him in the cart and he sat in the little child's seat while she wheeled down the grocery aisles.  He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section.  He saw the chocolate chip cookies and he stood up in the seat and said, "Mommy, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?"  She said, "I told you not even to ask.  You are not going to get any at all."  So he sat back down.

     They continued shopping, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie section.  "Mommy, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?"  She said, "I told you that you can't have any.  Now sit down and be quiet."

     Finally, they were approaching the checkout lane.  The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance.  So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart and shouted in his loudest voice, "In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?"  And everybody around just laughed.  Some even applauded.  Due to the generosity of the other shoppers, when mother and son left the store they left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.  

     You see it does matter how we pray.  How do you pray?  Are you praying in Jesus name?  The Bible says if we ask anything in his name, we shall receive it.  Of course we know that it must be according to the will of the Father, but still that is a pretty good promise.  So here it goes "IN THE NAME OF JESUS could you please make it stop raining."  That should do it.  Hope all your prayers are answered as well.  God bless you.