Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. [Hebrews 1:14 (NLT)]
“I’m the answer to Pastor’s prayers,” said the woman lightheartedly as she sat down next to me at Bible study. Having seen on Facebook that he was praying for more people at Bible study, she felt the urge to come. Her comment caused me to think about the way God uses us to answer people’s prayers.
I was looking at the vast array of allergy medications when another woman joined me. While perusing the shelves, we discussed the merits of various brands. She then said, “I see from your cross, you’re a Christian, so you’ll understand. I know I should be thankful in all things but I’m just having an awful time with this one.” She went on with her grievance that severe allergies had suddenly attacked her at sixty years of age. I sympathized since, like her, I never suffered from allergies until my senior years. “Perhaps,” I suggested, “we should be thankful that we haven’t had to suffer from them since youth!” We talked a little about gratitude and God and joined one another in a quick prayer. When done, she said, “Thanks; I needed that!”
A stranger approached me at church and asked if a certain pastor had arrived. After telling her not yet, something made me pause and ask if there was anything I could do for her. Replying that she needed someone with whom to pray, I offered. She shared her concerns and we laid them before God in prayer. We chatted briefly and I gave what comfort and guidance I could (along with a big hug). I then offered to find the pastor but she said, “No, you were just what I needed.”
I think of a friend who, when he discovered a loved one was using drugs, was devastated. The next day, he had lunch with a business acquaintance who asked what was troubling him. As my friend poured out his concerns to a man he barely knew, the businessman shared his own story of addiction and gave some much needed and excellent advice. He was just what was needed.
Were those mere coincidences or were they orchestrated by God? That first woman didn’t have to come to Bible study. In response to the woman with allergies, I easily could have said, “That’s too bad,” and finished my shopping. As for the woman who needed someone with whom to pray, after telling her the pastor wasn’t there, I could have gone about my business. That businessman didn’t have to ask my friend about his troubles and he certainly didn’t need to share a very private part of his own life. By responding to someone’s need, had we become answers to their prayers?
Although angels are God’s messengers and spiritual beings, I wonder if we humans might also act as His messengers and be given opportunities to answer people’s prayers. Rather than ministering spirits, we are ministering mortals. Although we have bodies and angels don’t, there is a bigger difference between God’s holy messengers and us. God’s angels have unquestioning obedience to His commands; we, on the other hand, often ignore Him and the opportunities and tasks He sets before us. God’s angels are sent by Him to help believers—but so are their brothers and sisters in Christ. Could you be an earthly angel in disguise? Could you be the answer to someone’s prayers?
Yesterday, our nation celebrated Thanksgiving, a holiday that revolves around food and unites our nation across lines of culture, race, religion, and politics in a way little else can. Regardless of what football team they support, where they live or from where they came, whether liberal, conservative or somewhere in between, my Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and unbelieving friends all celebrated around tables heavy laden with food. The menu and traditions varied—some had naan and others enjoyed cornbread or Parker House rolls. Some plates had ham alongside the turkey while others tofurkey and lentils or some of Grandma’s lasagna. Some cooks put pork sausage in their dressing and others kept kosher. There may have been glazed sweet potatoes and green beans at one house and mashed whites with gravy and corn casserole at another but, whatever was served, no one went away hungry and there were plenty of leftovers. Unfortunately, not everyone’s plate was piled with food and not everyone complained of feeling stuffed.
Although more people prefer to believe in heaven than in hell, the Bible tells us that hell is as real as heaven. It exists whether or not someone likes the idea of a place of eternal punishment or refuses to believe in its actuality. The Bible uses words like fire, brimstone, pits of darkness, torment, anguish, weeping and gnashing of teeth to describe it. I won’t pretend to know what hell is like but, based on Scripture’s description (whether literal or figurative), hell doesn’t sound like any place I (or anyone I know) would deliberately choose to be.
I walked into the university workout facility and was greeted by a large sign telling me the school says no to hate. I was surprised that a Christian University felt the need to say what should be obvious. Has hate become so much a part of our everyday lives that we have to be reminded not to do it? There wasn’t a sign telling us not to pee in the pool, have fist fights, or swear. Evidently, certain acceptable behavior was assumed but not hating wasn’t! Apparently, the sign is necessary because people feel freer to express their prejudice, intolerance, and bias than do any of those other things.
One week after Hurricane Irma, our Florida church met where they usually do in the city park. As the service began, an irate city official arrived. Afraid of unsafe conditions and liability issues, he insisted that the service be stopped immediately. While the senior pastor continued the service, our associate pastor tried to calm him down. He started by asking the bureaucrat how he was doing. The overwrought man’s response was a recitation of all of the challenges he’d dealt with in a city without power, working sewers or safe water. “No,” our pastor said, “I know the city is a mess, how are you doing?” He went on to ask about the man’s family, his house, and whether he was in need of anything. Instead of seeing him as a problem to be solved, our Pastor saw him as a person under a great deal of stress. As the two men talked and shared their personal hurricane stories, the official calmed. He finally took a good look at the park and decided the service could continue. This didn’t happen because our pastor won an argument; it happened because he saw the city employee as a person with problems of his own and showed that he (and our church) cared.
It’s not just light poles that were destroyed by Hurricane Irma’s winds; many trees also met their end at her hands. As I looked at the upended roots of a once mighty oak, I thought of one of Aesop’s fables about an oak in a storm. A proud oak stood by a stream, and like this one, had survived several storms in its many years. One day, a hurricane the likes of Irma arrived and the great oak fell with a thunderous crash. As the water rose, it was carried down to the sea. When the oak eventually came to rest along the shore, it looked up at the sea oats that were waving in the now gentle sea breeze, “How did you manage to weather such a terrible storm?” it asked. “I’m a great oak and even I didn’t have strength enough to battle the wind.”
Devotions of the Heart 