OPEN: A woman was telling about her brother and wife were expecting another baby. Hoping to get her 4 year old niece to talk about it… she asked her "What do you want, a baby brother or a baby sister?” “Aunt Donna,” she chided, “sometimes you just gots to take what God gives ya.” (Donna Patton, Hillsboro, OH. Christian Reader, "Lite Fare.")
A lot of people approach prayer that way. They don’t think it matters what you pray because God’s gonna give ya, what God gonna give ya anyway, so why bother? It’s not going to make any difference!
But the Bible has a different take on prayer. Psalm 81:10 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
James puts it this way “You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:2
In other words: God’s wants to give ya… what YOU want Him to give ya. So pray! Ask! Seek! Knock on the door! Or, as Jesus said it: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7
The Bible is filled with passages like the one we read today that tell of God answering very specific prayers in a very specific ways. Now, we all know there are several reasons why God might not answer our prayers: If it’s not in God’s Will; If it’s not God’s Timing; If we ask with wrong motives; OR if we have Sin in our lives, and on and on. There’s no question, there are qualifiers as to whether our prayers get answered. But today, we’re not going to focus on why some prayers don’t work or aren’t answered. Instead, we’re going to focus on why THIS prayer did work and was answered.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND: Abraham is an old man, and his only son Isaac is about 30 years old. The time has come for Isaac to take a bride… but there’s a problem. Abraham knows what the girls are like in Palestine, and he’s not pleased. He makes his servant “… swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites” He knows what these girls are like and he doesn’t want his son dating any of them.
So Abraham makes his servant promise to go back to where Abraham grew up and find a girl for his son. Because - back there - he’s pretty sure there are good girls who have grown up the right way.
Now, what happens next is interesting. The servant saddles up 10 camels, loaded them with gifts and baggage and he makes a 600-mile trip to Haran (the city of Nahor). The journey would have taken him about a week and half. But I was a little surprised to discover that he doesn’t seem to pray before he leaves. And he doesn’t seem to pray while he’s on his way. He doesn’t seem to pray… until he gets there. He gets to Haran and THEN he prays. How come? Why does he wait so long?
Well, I suspect he’s a lot like you and me. Prayer can sometimes be… a kind of an afterthought. He’s been given a mission. He knows his objectives. He hasn’t really given any thought about HOW he’d find a bride for Isaac. But he’s thinking “I’ll worry about that when I get there!” So he doesn’t even think about praying. He knows he’s got a job to do… and he just DOES IT!
Have you ever done that? You’ve got stuff to do… and you just do it. You don’t think about praying because it doesn’t seem necessary. I know I have.
But now, the servant is in Haran and it suddenly occurs to him – he has no idea how he’s going to find a woman that’s the right fit for Isaac, let alone one that would be willing to go 600 miles back home with him. I sense that this servant is overwhelmed by the enormity of his task and he realizes he just might fail Abraham because he really hadn’t thought this thing through. How’s he EVER find a bride for Isaac?
Then he remembers watching Abraham pray. Notice how the servant prays: "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.” Genesis 24:12
Notice how he starts the prayer. He doesn’t say “MY LORD and MY God.” He says “O LORD, God OF MY MASTER Abraham.” He’s not praying to HIS God, he’s praying to Abraham’s God. Why? Because he’s watched Abraham do that in the past and he’s convinced that Abraham’s God is powerful.
Now, this is the first lesson I think you should see here. People pay attention when you pray. If you pray believing… folks will notice that! Do you realize we will often watch TV with our family and friends. We may go to a sports event with them. We may play board games, card games and computer games with them. But how often have you prayed with them?
Now, you’ve got to be careful here. There is a danger to watchful for. Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they often prayed for show and they prayed to show off their spirituality. Don’t do that! But there’s nothing wrong with saying "let’s pray about this"… and then Pray.
We fall into the same trap when someone comes up to us and shares a problem. We’ll say, “I’ll pray for you.” Then we walk away. Wouldn’t it be better if you said… “why don’t I pray for you right now?” If we did stuff like that our children/grandchildren/friends/neighbors they’d all know we believed in prayer and that we cared enough for them to pray for them!
ILLUS: I read the try story of a woman who told of the time she was out walking and talking out loud with God. She said, just then, two neighborhood girls stopped pedaling their bicycles and scooted close to here. “Hey, lady, who are you talking to?” “Well, I’m kind of saying some things out loud that I need to remember.” “Yeah? But who are you telling them to?” “Actually, I’m praying. I’m talking with God about my husband and my little girls and the I’m hoping for them and lots of other people too.” One of them stared at me for a long moment, “You must be a loving person.” “Oh, I hope so. One of my (prayers) is for the people in this neighborhood, so I’ll be praying for you later. OK?” “Really? Cool! Hey, did you hear? That lady’s gonna pray for us!” (Cindy Sigler Dagman, Focus on the Family May 07 p. 23)
The prayers of this woman led these girls to feel that someone cared for them enough to talk to an all powerful God on their behalf. That’s the kind of message we should always try to relay to our children.
The next thing that caught my attention was that this servant knew what he wanted. A lot of times we’re not very specific in our prayers. We’ll pray “God bless them,” or “God lead them,” or “God help them,” or “God heal them.” But those are not real specific requests, and we wouldn’t know if God answered those prayers. There’s no way to measure the answer. We should pray in a way that we paint a target on the person we’re praying for, and we should aim our prayers directly at that person’s specific needs.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with those kinds of prayers. But I think that we often pray like that because we don’t want to make it too hard for God… OR don’t want to impose. But Abraham’s servant wasn’t bothered by that concept. He knew how much Abraham believed in God and that Abraham BELIEVED God could do anything… so why not pray and pray for a specific answer.
ILLUS: The Astros and the Nationals are in the final games of their World Series, and it something occurred to me as I watch a recent game. When a player steps up to bat they’ll sometimes give that player’s batting average. For example, one player may have a .300 batting average, which essentially means they hit the ball and get on base 3 out of every 10 times at bat. Now… does that mean the player doesn’t bother trying to hit the ball the other 7 times at bat? Of course not. Every time he steps up to bat, he’s swinging for the fences. He’s giving it all he’s got. He doesn’t focus on the times he doesn’t hit the ball. He’s there to HIT the ball every chance he gets. And that’s the way we need to pray. We need to pray every time as if we’re swinging for the fences. We need to be specific and we need to be convinced that the prayer will accomplish the goal we set for it.
Notice what the servant asks: “Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’ — let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.” Genesis 24:13-14
Now some of this was simple courtesy. Back then you could ask for a drink and people tended to be kind and offered water to you. But the camel thing - well… not so much.
ILLUS: I did a little research on this and found that – if you had a really thirsty camel, they could drink A LOT!!! A typical camel can drink 53 gallons of water in three minutes. (https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/09/18/how-much-water-can-a-camel-store-in-its-hump/) That’s a lot of water! And that’s only ONE camel. This servant had TEN camels, and she has no idea where they’ve been.
So why does Abraham’s servant ask for that ONE thing? Why ask that God have her offer to water his camels? That doesn’t seem very romantic! I mean, why not ask that she be pretty? Why not ask that she give a hint that she’s available? Well, because that’s not what he’s looking for. He’s looking for a girl with the right attitude - and that attitude is one who has a servant’s heart. That kind of woman would make a great wife for Isaac. Only a woman with a servant’s heart would even think of watering his camels.
A couple more things here. It occurred to me that there’s no guarantee the servant is going to find this girl. God didn’t appear to him in a dream or instruct him on what she’d look like or where she’d be… or what she’ll say!
No guarantees! So when he asks for guidance in prayer he has no assurance that God will even consider answering his prayer. No assurance that there’s even a girl in Haran for Isaac. No assurance.
Too often Christians don’t bother to pray because there’s no assurance – no guarantee - that God will bother to listen to them and answer, or that this is even in God’s will. They don’t want to get God upset with them so they don’t pray.
ILLUS: But I’m going to tell you, the only way to upset God in prayer is not to ask. There’s a story about Alexander the Great. It’s said that poor man once came to him and poured out his heart. His family was in trouble and he needed money. Alexander was moved by the man’s story and issued an order to his treasurer to give this man whatever he should ask. When the poor man came to the treasurer he asked an outlandish sum. The treasurer was shocked and sent a message back to the king. But Alexander replied, "Let the money be paid instantly. I am delighted with this man’s way of thinking. He has done me a singular honor. By the largeness of his request, he shows faith in my wealth and my generosity."
You see, God is never upset with the largeness of our requests. Granted, He doesn’t have to give us what we ask, but we honor Him by the size and faith of our prayers. In those kinds of prayers we are declaring that OUR God can do whatever we need.
The last thing that caught my attention was that this is how Abraham was thinking. Abraham believed his God could do anything. So he told his servant: “The LORD, the God of heaven… will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.” Genesis 24:7
Abraham believed in a God who could do ANYTHING! And he believed God would send an angel to Haran and set everything up. And – sure enough – that’s exactly what happened. This girl was not only available, and not only did she have a servant’s heart but she “was very attractive in appearance” Genesis 24:16
When God answers prayer… He gives you the very best. He gives even stuff you didn’t ask for!
One college professor once said, "When you think nothing is happening, be assured with God something is happening." He is not sitting idly by. “Commit your way to the Lord: trust in Him and He will do this" (Ps. 37:5). "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Ps. 37:7). (H.B. London Jr. The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing) God is actively involved in answering your prayers.
One last thought: notice what happened when someone like Abraham prayed boldly to God. It influenced the thinking his servant, and that led the servant to pray in such a way that God listened to that prayer. And the answered prayer led to bringing that servant to his knees. Genesis 24:26 say that when the servant’s prayer was answered, “The man bowed his head and worshiped the LORD.”
My point is this – when you pray believing it can influence people to know you believe in a mighty God who can do mighty things. It might even prompt them “try God out” on their own… which could lead them humbling themselves before Jesus and becoming a Christian. You could win someone to Christ simply by the faith you show in your prayers.
INVITATION
