Well today I'm continuing, I'm number two in our message series on "Answered Prayer." Prayer is a very large topic and we could spend every Sunday talking just about prayer. Today I'll be able to focus on a little bitty sliver of prayer. And I want encourage you to make prayer an integral part of your life because when it is, your life will be transformed.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband said, "Sheila, do you want to go see Stephanie play volleyball?" Stephanie is our niece and she is a senior. She's the captain of the volleyball team at Westmont College, and they were playing at Azusa Pacific, not too far from here. And I said I'd love to go see Stephanie play. So, after work and I ran home, put my blue jeans on, put my everyday shoes on, and we ran out to Azusa Pacific. We get to this big campus and my husband parks in the furthest space away from the gym, way out on the far netherworld of the parking lot. Any other women have that problem with their husbands? It's because he doesn't want any tiny little ding on his car, right?

Well, it has been raining and, with my little everyday shoes on, I was able to tiptoe around the puddles as I went across the parking lot into the gym. Inside, I could see it was a tough game, Westmont and Azusa Pacific, two Christian colleges with girls, some six ft. four inches tall! I'm six feet. I could have played for them maybe, if I'd had an athletic bone in my body. It was fun watching the game and seeing our niece, but at the end of the game in the late in the evening, as we got to the gym doors we could see a torrential downpour out side. Oh no! The shoes I had worn, my everyday shoes, are magenta suede with little rhinestones and there's no way that they can handle torrential downpour rain.  

So, I looked at the rain and I looked at my husband and I said, "Jim, go get the car. I'm not going to run through this rain." So he went and got the car, but even from the gym to the sidewalk, there was a lot of rain. It was pouring buckets of rain. I muttered to myself, "I sure wore the wrong shoes tonight."

The woman standing next to me said, "Yeah, me too." I looked at her feet and she had boots up to her knees. She must have seen a dubious look on my face, because she continued, "They're brand new and I haven't had them waterproofed yet."

I said, "I'm thinking of taking my shoes off because I don't want my shoes ruined."

"That's a good idea," she said. She takes her boots off. I take mine off. I tuck my shoes in my raincoat and she does the same. As soon as my husband got there, I went dashing through those puddles, making sure I didn't get a drop of rain on my shoes. My husband and my son Jason, who was with us, opened the car door, and were laughing hysterically at me.

"Sheila, don't you know, shoes are meant to protect your feet from the rain," said Jim.

"Not you to protect your shoes from the rain," said Jason.

I said, "You think I look silly, look at that woman over there with the boots! She is doing the very same thing!"

So what does that have to do with prayer? Well I would dare suggest that sometimes we don't take advantage of God's power in the storms of life. The rougher it gets, the more it rains. And instead of putting it on His power, jumping into the puddles of life, we take God's power and we hide it under our raincoat. Why do we do that? We do that because we're protecting Him and ourselves from looking foolish. After all, what if I pray for people who have cancer and they don't get well? What if I pray for someone to get a job and they don't get a job. And so because I don't want God to look like He's not able, I hide Him under my raincoat. Isn't that a temptation? It's because too often when we pray, we haven't seen the answers we thought we would see to our prayers.

When I was a little girl, I heard the stories of Jesus, that He would heal a paralytic instantly. He would give sight to a blind man just like that. And He raised a little girl from the dead. More than once, when I was a little girl, I got sick. Usually it was just a cold. In my bed with my covers up pulled up, I prayed, "Jesus, I'm a sick little girl. Will You heal me? Jesus, I'm a sick little girl! Are You going to heal me?" Well, He didn't heal me right away. Haven't we all had experiences like that where we've prayed and we didn't see what we thought we were expecting to see.

If you're like me, the challenge is that we have misconceptions about what prayer really is. Because, for some of us, we think that prayer is a vending machine. We just put a prayer in, like a quarter, and we say, "Okay, I want to be healed from my cold. I'll push that button and, ah, there it is." I should expect God to heal me because I put my prayer in.

Or, we think prayer is a slot machine. I put my quarter in, I put my prayer in, pull that handle and I'm going to take a gamble that God may or may not answer my prayer.

Or maybe we think that prayer is an ATM machine. I'm going to go to church. I'm going to tithe. I'm going to pray. I'm going to read my scripture. And I'm putting deposits into my account. When the time comes, I had better be able to go over there and pull out what I need, that withdrawal, that healing, or whatever it is that I need from God.

But prayer is not a vending machine, prayer is not an ATM machine, and prayer is not a slot machine. What is prayer? Prayer is a mechanism for God to achieve His purposes through you and through me. In fact, I have a definition for prayer I'm going to share with you today.

I have a son who's a Bible scholar and I can just hear him now saying, "Mom, you've taken this completely out of context. St. Paul wasn't even talking about prayer. True. That's all true. But I have to say, I think this Bible verse, Philippians 2:13, encapsulates what real true prayer is. Prayer is God at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purposes. Let me say that one more time. Prayer is God at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purposes.

When I was a little girl, we would go back to Iowa every summer. I have to tell you, the lightning storms in California pale in comparison to the lightning storms in Iowa. Because the lightning storms in Iowa are horrendous. The thunder cracks and the lightning turns night into day. I experienced my first lightning storm in Iowa in my grandma's house. I was upstairs in a bedroom at grandma's house, I was just a little girl, and I heard that loud crack. The brightness of the lightning came through the lace curtains and lit up everything in that room. I must have been huddled in my bed, shivering and crying because Dad came in. I thought, "Oh good, dad's here. My daddy is here. He's going to tuck me in tighter and comfort me in my bed. But, instead, he picked me up and walked towards the hall. I thought, "Wait, wait, wait, Daddy, we're going the wrong direction. I'm supposed to stay in bed. I want to hide here under the covers." But my daddy kept carrying me down the stairs, and I'm thinking, "No, no, no, we're going the wrong direction. But he kept on going, in fact, he opened the front door and took me out on the front porch where the lightning was flashing and the thunder was cracking.

And my daddy held me, in my pajamas, and he said, "Sheila, this is nothing to be afraid of. This is God's power on display. Can you see it? Can you feel it? Look at it. Look how exciting, look how powerful."

I thought, "This is the best firework display I've ever seen, even though we lived right around the corner from Disneyland. This is far better than that." And because my daddy had taken me out onto the front porch, even though I had wanted to hide in the bedroom under the covers, I got a front row seat to see God's power in play. I could have missed it all together.

When you pray, you get to see God's power on display. That's why we pray. You know, Jesus doesn't really need us to pray. God doesn't need you and me to pray. There's a wonderful story you may have heard that illustrates this point:

The disciples were out on their boat all night. And they threw their nets into the sea. When they pulled them back up into the boat, the nets were empty, not even a little minnow inside. They threw the nets back out again and pulled those nets up, empty.

Have any of you watched the TV show, "The Deadliest Catch"? My boys love to watch that show. One episode featured people who hoist up great big cages filled with Alaskan King Crab. Every now and then, they pull up a cage and there are only a few little crabs in there.

Like the Alaskan King Crab people, the disciples pulled up their nets one time and they didn't have a single fish in their net, not a single fish.

Come morning, Jesus is standing on the shore about a hundred yards, about the distance from one tip of the Cathedral to the other, and Jesus yells out to them, "Hey guys, catch anything?"

"No, we put those nets down all night long and we haven't caught anything.

"Do it one more time," Jesus says. This time, put your net on the other side of the boat. So the disciples put their net on that side of the boat and, of course, we all know the end of the story. There were so many fish in their net they couldn't contain it.

The story is fun. It's a cute story because it doesn't end there. By the time they hauled all that fish back to shore, guess what? Jesus had breakfast cooking, waiting for them. The coals were burning, fish were already frying, and the bread was there. Did Jesus need that boat? Did Jesus need the disciples? Did Jesus need the net? Absolutely not. He says, "Fish, just jump right here onto my fire," and the fish did. There He was. He didn't need those disciples. So why bother? Why bother? Because Jesus wanted the disciples to have a front row seat to see and witness God's power on display.

When you pray, you get to watch a powerful display. And when you pray, you get to play a powerful role in the drama of life. For it is God at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purposes.

When I was a brand new principal of a Christian school of about 300 children, it was my responsibility to make sure that those children were given an academically and spiritually sound curriculum and instruction. I took that responsibility very seriously. One of our teachers was Mrs. Evans. My son Nicholas had her. She was a beloved first grade teacher at our school. One day she came into my office after school, which some of the teachers would do from time to time, but this time I could tell something was up, something was wrong with Sandy Evans. She sat down and she said, "Sheila, I got a call from my daughter. She and her husband have a little girl named Mariah who's only 5. They live in Hawaii but they have discovered that she has a malignant brain tumor and they need to bring her here to CHOC where they have excellent treatment. Plus, they need to be around family who can support them better."

When the Mariah and her family got here, I found out what day her surgery was, a 12-hour surgery, and I went to CHOC hospital, sat with Sandy and her family, and I prayed. When the doctors came out, they said they weren't able to get it all because some of it was in the brain stem. "We did the best we could, said one doctor, "but we're not holding out for much hope."

After I left the hospital, I went back to school. That day was school chapel. I got up in front of the students and without even thinking, I said to the children, "Mrs. Evans granddaughter had surgery today and it didn't go very well, so I need you all to pray for Mariah. Her name is Mariah, the little girl. Please pray for Mariah. Pray for a miracle."

The words were no sooner out of my mouth when I thought, "Oh no, Sheila, what have you done now? Because what if there isn't a miracle? What if God doesn't answer our prayer?" I was worried about what I might have done to the faith of all these children.

Sure enough, I got a phone call from Sandy a couple of days later, and she said, "Sheila, it does not look good at all, in fact Mariah has slipped into a coma. She's on life support, and they were going to take her off life support in 24 hours. Can you come and pray for us?"

So I went to CHOC and I walked the halls until I found the intensive care unit. There I saw this precious little five-year-old girl, her head bare where they'd shaved it for the surgery. I laid my hand on her head and I could feel the soft little prickles of her hair. I said, "Lord Jesus, I pray for Mariah. Take Your precious daughter home. Cradle her. May her homecoming be peaceful, sweet, and tender just as she is."

I got in my car, drove back to school, and thought, "Well now Sheila, look what you've done. You have to face those children who've all been praying for a miracle. What are you going to tell them?" I was not going to do an assembly and talk to all three hundred of them at once. It was too important. I decided, instead, to go from room to room to room, 15 rooms to be exact. I sat down and gathered the children in each classroom around my feet and I said, "Children, I've asked you to pray for Mariah."

"How is she doing, Mrs. Coleman?" "I've been praying for a miracle." "I just know that God's going to heal her."

"Well, I have to tell you, she's not doing well. But sometimes when we pray, God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want Him to. But His answers are always best."

"So are you saying we shouldn't pray for her healing anymore?"

I went around to all those classrooms and I discouraged them from continuing to pray for Mariah. I basically took God's power and I hid it in my raincoat. But those children didn't listen to me. They kept praying for Mariah. They kept praying for Mariah. They kept praying for Mariah.

The next day Sandy called me and she said, "Sheila, the doctors have seen a sign of life in Mariah. And they're not going to take her off life support just yet. They're going to give her 24 more hours. Twenty-four hours came and went, and I got another call from her the next day. "Sheila, the doctors have seen more life in Mariah. They're not going to take her off life support." I want you to imagine with me what it was like when Mariah was wheeled onto our playground, with balloons flying behind her wheelchair, her bald head adorned with a little bitty butterfly painted on it. And all the children came running up to her saying, "Mariah! Mariah! Mariah, we prayed for you! We prayed for you, Mariah. We prayed for you." Those children and I had a front row seat to God's power at work. What if I hadn't asked those children to pray?

I want to say to you, today, if life is terrifying, if life is threatening and overwhelming, don't give into the temptation to go run and hide in the covers in the bedroom. Instead, ask God to give you the faith. Let your Daddy carry you down to the front porch and pray so you can see His power on display and have a front row seat. And if life is discouraging for you, if you are depressed because you have put one net out after another, you have sent out one resume after another, you have filled out refinance forms with one bank after another and you've been denied, denied, denied, not one nibble. If this is you, pray and say to God, "Where do You want me to cast my net out now?" Because the story is not over. God is not done.

If your life is in ashes and you are facing incurable cancer, if you are spiritually and emotionally dead, I want you to pray knowing that the God that you are praying to is a God who hurls lightning in the heavens. He's a God who fills your nets to overflowing and provides more than you need, and He is a God who raises little girls from the dead. If you're in a storm of life, don't you dare hide God's power in your raincoat. You take it out, put it on, and you jump in those puddles, you run through the rain because you have the God of the universe at your back.

Before I close in prayer, I want to take a moment to encourage all of you that, as you pray, and as God answers your prayers, please let us know, write us a letter. If you're watching at home on TV or if you're here joining us today, send me a note, call us, send e-mail, let us know. We want to celebrate with you what God is doing in your life. And if you have never prayed at all to God, I want you to know that Jesus Christ wants to be your best friend. And all you need to do is tell Him, "Jesus, be my friend."

Let us pray. Jesus, I want You to be my best friend. Thank You for forgiving me and giving me new life. God almighty, when You wanted the world to know how great You are, You came to the world as a little child. You were God, although yet a babe. When you wanted me to know how powerful You are, You shook my faith through a little girl. I challenged the children to pray and pray they did. Even when it looked as if there was no hope, they refused to stop believing in Your miracle-working power. As a result, we all, today, get to see Your miracle working power save a life and teach us the power of prayer. May a powerful faith be born in us today, may we refuse to stop believing even when there is no hope. May we refuse to stop praying, even when it appears the end is near. And, in the process, use our prayers to bring life, hope, and miracles. Amen.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This message was delivered by Sheila Schuller Coleman from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power, October 8, 2009.