Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Suppose There Were 50 Righteous

Our Bible story today was Abraham's prayer the day before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. You know the story. The Lord comes to Abraham and tells him what He's going to do. Abraham intercedes. If there are fifty righteous, would You spare the city? 45? 40? 30? 20? 10? And the Lord promised to spare the city if He could find ten Christians there. This story is often told to encourage us in prayer: be bold, be persistent, ask according to the promise!

We know the end of the story. That day, as he was praying, Abraham didn't know the end of the story. That night he didn't know the end of the story. The next morning, Abraham woke up early and went out to the place he had begged the Lord to spare the cities (Genesis 19:27). And what did he find when he looked toward Sodom? The city had been zotted big-time!

Does it look to Abraham as if the Lord cared about his prayer?

The Bible doesn't even tell us how long it was before Abraham got word that Lot and his daughters were still alive. Next thing we know, Abraham is down south, passing off Sarah as his sister again. And God blesses him with more wealth, gives him his wife back, and then gives them a son -- keeping His promise even when Abraham faltered.

You know what? I think this story isn't so much for "prayer warriors" as it is for those of us who pray and don't see "results."

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