And It Did Not Rain...

I just got home from Merrill Park today after enjoying five hours of dry weather on a day that it was supposed to rain. God has been known to make it rain (or not rain) both in Scripture and in my life as a result of prayer. With our renewed emphasis on prayer of late, we really believed that God would prevent the rain as a result of our prayers.

As the week went on and the forecast continued to call for rain, we continued to pray. I refused to accept a "backup plan" insisting that God would allow us to have our Outreach BBQ. There were too many of us inviting unchurched people personally and I simply couldn't imagine how God would get the glory in letting it be cancelled. I even told one person I invited that we were praying that it would not rain. God's reputation with those that didn't know Him was on the line.

Last night at our God First Friday service, it poured. As we stood around afterwards we continued to pray. We said we would make a judgement call in the morning, but that if it was raining we should probably cancel. I woke up anticipating it being dry in faith, but looked out the window to see a steady rain. I looked on facebook and saw all of the "come rain or shine" invites and talked to the staff and we decided to go for it, even in the rain. I actually told my wife jokingly, "I guess prayer doesn't work."

On a day with a 60% chance of showers, it was dry for our entire event! It stopped as they finished setting up and was perfect weather for the entire time. It rained all around us, but Eagle stayed dry. I can't believe I actually doubted God, not that He had the power, but that He would answer the specific request. I figured that He let it go to the last minute just to see if we were willing to get a little wet to try to reach this valley, then He shut off the rain for us. Glory to God! Let's continue to pray and continue to reach out. By the way, just after everything was unloaded back into our building, it started to pour! As if we needed God to show us it wasn't a coincidence. We already knew it was all Him.