Praying For Rain

Scripture: I Kings 18:1, 17-46 (selected verses); Luke 11:9-10

Sermon by Dr. George B. Wirth

First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta

October 8, 2000

 

Preface

Before we begin our sermon - just this word about the baseball game yesterday - I know we’re all disappointed that the Braves did not make it to the World Series. Watching the game on television, I got to thinking about another playoff series that happened a long time ago in the 1960’s between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in the American League.

 

In the first inning, a rookie for Boston was the leadoff batter and before he came to the plate, he crossed himself, shut his eyes for a second and then stepped up to bat. Yogi Berra was the Yankee catcher. He looked up at the rookie, harrumphed and said, “Why don’t we just let God watch this game.”

 

Well, it seems that even Divine intervention wasn’t going to help us get to the World Series, and who knows, maybe it’s St. Louis’ turn to win. We had a great team this year and we can all be proud of them. But what I’d like us to do this morning is to leave baseball aside and focus our hearts and minds today on the real questions about Divine intervention through the power of prayer.

 

Introduction

The Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle said it was “the west’s worst wildfire season in 50 years.” And as Barbara and I traveled through Montana, Idaho and Wyoming this past August, what we heard the people there talking about and saw with our own eyes confirmed the reality of that newspaper headline. Smoke filled the sky all around us, shrouding the mountains and forcing thousands of worried citizens to evacuate their homes. Entrances and exits in Yellowstone National Park were being closed, and 40 million acres of forestland were destroyed. 12 billion dollars was set aside by the Federal Government to fight the blazing infernos, and with painful honesty and a sense of desperation, Dr. Leon Neuenschwander, Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of Idaho, said “Our tax dollars will be spent trying to contain this disaster…(but in most cases) all the firemen can do is to pray for rain.” (From articles in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, August 8, 2000, page 1, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 17, 2000, page 7)

 

Upon our return from the west, we discovered that the drought back east, especially here in Georgia, was also severe. Farmers in the southern sections of our state lost many of their crops and water use in Atlanta and other cities was strictly rationed.

 

Then, in September, with hurricane Helene coming up the coast, the weather began to change. And some folks down in Griffin, Georgia, explained to a newspaper reporter that it happened this way:

 

“The recent rains drenching Griffin and the rest of Metro-Atlanta are a miraculous response to a…community prayer meeting last month…’I told my wife…I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to let some water out of the reservoir’ said The Rev. Clay Padgett, senior pastor of King’s Way Christian Center. ‘That’s just like God – He doesn’t do anything halfway…I believe He’s making our cup runneth over’…

On August 4, pastors from 25 Spalding County churches led a crowd of about 400 in a 90-minute prayer service (organized by Rev. Padgett). Griffin got 1.5 inches of rain that day. By September 12, two good rain spells had brought the reservoir up to its full level…and the city has received 7.69 inches of rain since the prayer meeting…

Padgett said he and the other pastors want to give credit where credit is due. ‘We were saying we ought to get together and have a ‘Thank you Lord for the rain rally!’” (From the Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 23, 2000, page 1)

 

What those firefighters out west and pastors and people in Griffin, Georgia back east were praying for was rain. We all wanted it and needed it, some people prayed for it, and finally, the rain came.

 

Part 1

Our sermon title this morning comes not only from what happened last summer, but also from an ancient story recorded in the book of I Kings, chapter 18. In the 9^th century BC, Ahab, the king of Israel, had married Jezebel, a pagan woman of the Sidonians who promoted cultic worship of the god called Baal among the chosen people. This desecration of the first commandment, You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3), displeased the Lord and a great drought and famine descended upon the land.

 

I Kings 18, verse 1, tells us that After many days, the word of the Lord came to (the prophet) Elijah in the third year, saying “Go, show yourself to Ahab (and tell him that) I will send rain upon the earth.” King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were not receptive to the message, and blamed Elijah for all the trouble in Israel. Elijah answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have…for you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed Baal.

 

So a great contest was set up at Mt. Carmel, where Elijah confronted 450 prophets of Baal, declaring to them, to Ahab, Jezebel and the people of Israel, If the Lord is God, follow Him: but if Baal is God, then follow him. (Verse 21)

 

The altars were laid out with sacrifices and wood and the sign of God’s power was to be revealed by fire. The prophets of Baal prayed to their god, who failed them. Then Elijah prayed to the God of Israel, who consumed the altars with a blazing conflagration. And as the fire burned, as the false prophets were defeated and destroyed, Elijah began to Pray for Rain.

 

The Bible says that he went up to the top of Mt. Carmel, bowed down and put his face between his knees to pray…and in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great downpour of rain. (I Kings 18:42-46)

 

Now we need to remember that in ancient days, those primitive people believed that God’s anger and displeasure could and did cause natural disasters and bad weather. In this modern era, with all of our scientific research and knowledge about El Nino and La Nina and the atmospheric conditions which create hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts, no one I know still believes that these harsh displays of nature are, literally, “Acts of God.” (And perhaps someday, our insurance companies will delete that phrase from their policies!)

 

But there are many people, including Christians, who still pray to God for favorable weather conditions. In fact, that was the subject of some conversation last Friday, as our Church’s golf tournament to raise money for youth mission trips was rained out. A number of drenched and disappointed golfers looked at me, pointed toward the dark sky and quipped with a glint in their eyes, “How about a little help preacher.” My reply was the same as it always has been: “I’m in sales, not management.” And we laughed together as the rain came down even harder.

 

But the theological question which all of this raises is no joking matter. “Do our prayers about the rain and the weather make a difference with or have any influence on the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth?”

 

Part 2

Some would say “No,” and with Albert Einstein they declare that “God does not play dice (play games) with the universe.” In other words, at the dawn of creation, God set in motion certain laws of nature which God does not alter or violate. So good weather and bad weather, including the forest fires and droughts of last summer, will inevitably come and go, and praying about it is of no use, because “God does not play games with the world He has made.”

 

Of course, the folks down in Griffin, Georgia and many other Christians would disagree with that assessment, for they believe that their prayers for rain were answered. And to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t want to engage them in a debate, because in my own experiences, those kinds of arguments are usually a waste of time and energy.

 

But what does matter is this: when we pray to God, do we hold an expectation deep down in our hearts that God will respond to us? And now, we’re not talking about the weather. We’re talking about whether or not prayer really works.

 

When Jesus’ disciples came to Him, asking Lord, teach us to pray, this is what He told them to do: Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you (Luke 11:9). Jesus was telling them and all of us still today that God hears our petitions and has promised to answer us when we pray.

 

But in order for that to happen, we need to make the time and take the time to be quiet and still and receptive before the Lord. That’s what Dr. Peter Marshall discovered in the midst of a relentless schedule of preaching and teaching and serving as pastor to his congregation up in Washington, D.C. In the midst of that whirlwind, he got down on his knees and this is what he prayed:

 

“Father, I am beginning to know how much I miss when I fail to talk to Thee in prayer, and through prayer, to receive into my life the strength and the guidance which only Thou canst give. Forgive me for the pride and the presumption that make me continue to struggle to manage my own affairs to the exhaustion of my body, the weariness of my mind and the trial of my faith.

In a moment like this, I know that Thou couldst have worked Thy good in me with so little strain, with so little effort. And then to Thee would have been given the praise and the glory. When I neglect to pray, mine is the loss. Forgive me Lord. Amen”

 

And that is where we must all begin, by taking the time and making the time to be available to God, just as He has promised to be available to us.

 

Moreover, we need to learn to trust that God knows what is best for us. Sometimes when we pray for a certain thing to happen and it doesn’t, we may feel that God has let us down. But could it be that God is teaching us the difference between what we think we want and what He knows that we need? I think these words written by an unknown author help to remind us of that truth:

 

I ask God for strength, that I might achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn to obey;

 

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,

I was given poverty, that I might become wise;

 

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of others,

I was given humility, that I might feel the need of God;

 

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things;

 

I got nothing that I asked for,

But everything I had hoped for.

 

Almost despite myself, my unspoken

Prayers were answered.

 

And I among all people, am most richly blessed.

 

Do you trust God like that? If you want to, then it may be time to let go of trying to control your own life, and let God, through prayer, help to guide you.

 

Conclusion

Jesus said, Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. That was and is His prescription for prayer. And if we take the time and make the time to be still before the Lord, if you and I can learn to trust that God knows what is best for us, then there is one last thing we can do.

 

When the firestorms of life rage all around us, when the drought of depression and fear descends deep down within our souls, we can pray to God for the hope we need to hold on and never give up.

 

Dr. Clarence Forsburg, a pastor in Nebraska, tells the story about a mother of five children who became so desperate because of health and financial problems that she decided her life was not worth the struggle. So while four of her children were at school, she shut all the windows in the house, locked the doors and turned on the gas heater without lighting it. As she lay down on the bed with her small baby in her arms, she heard a sound in the kitchen. It was the radio which she had forgotten to turn off, and as she listened, she heard the words of an old gospel hymn: “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”

 

At that moment, she realized the mistake she was making. She rushed around the house to open the windows and turn off the gas. Then she picked up that little girl and held her tight. When she told her pastor, Clarence Forsburg, about it later, she said, “I began to pray with gratitude to God for opening my eyes. I thanked God for life, for my five wonderful children, and I promised God that I would never again forget my faith in Him.”

 

You see, God might not change all the circumstances around us, including the weather. God may not deflect the pain we feel deep down within us, but God has promised to all who ask and seek and knock on the door through prayer, that He will be there with us, giving us the hope we need to hold on and never give up.

 

How do we know? The first verse of that same old gospel hymn tells us so: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege it is to carry, everything to God in prayer.”

 

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.