Answered Prayer or Coincidence?

The bumper sticker read, “Life is fragile – handle with prayer.” There is no argument related to the fragileness of life. Read any church prayer list and see the results of fragile lives. We are fragile physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So Christians pray – for Divine intervention, for strength, for wisdom, for discernment, for guidance, and a hundred other categories of prayer requests. We believe the Biblical promise for God, who said, “Call to Me, and I will answer you” (Jeremiah 33;3). When God responds, the cynics say it is mere coincidence. Former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, had the best reply to that logic when he wrote, “When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.” Life is indeed fragile, but when we pray, human-perceived, heaven-sent, coincidences happen. So continue to pray through the fragileness of life.

And join me in praying for the following global concerns:
• Pray for hundreds of summer mission teams that are now reflecting on their experiences and determining their next step.
• Pray for Marilyn as she concludes her stateside time and returns to Macau.
• Pray for the start-up of a new children’s home northwest of Cambodia.
• Pray for churches across Canada to take advantage of the excitement of the Winter Olympic Torch Relay to reach minister to their communities.
• Pray for a new church start this month in the Nova Varos area of Serbia.