Bring your umbrella
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Bring your umbrella
Reprinted courtesy of
The McCreary County Voice.
There’s a story about an area that had been suffering through severe drought for three years. The faith community came together and decided that they needed to pray for it to rain. As they all gathered to pray, they noticed that a little girl had brought an umbrella with her to prayer.
Finally a curious bystander asked, “Why did you bring the umbrella? Can’t you see there is no rain, and we have come here to pray for it? Only a foolish person would stand on a clear night like this with an open umbrella.”
“Yes indeed,” answered the girl. “I came to pray, too. I am certain that our prayers will be answered, and it will rain. That is why I brought this big, colorful umbrella.”
Over the years, I’ve heard many variations of the story, but the message is always very clear. This little girl came with an expectancy that God was going to answer their prayers. I believe God wants us, as born-again believers, to pray with expectancy and not with doubt.
God said, “Call to me, and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”
Jesus told us, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
The prayer of faith is a prayer of expectancy. Mary said to the Lord, “Be it done unto me according to your word.”
She was expecting the Word of God to be fulfilled in her life. The Bible says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Confidence and expectancy go hand in hand. If I have confidence in God‘s ability to take care of me, then I will be expecting that He will take care of me by faith. This confidence comes through experience, which will give us hope or a confident expectation. Hope is not just a wish that we think might come to pass. The word hope means to have a confident expectation in God. This adds a greater weight to the definition of faith, “Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for.”
Faith, then, is the substance of the things I confidently expect.
The next time you pray, bring your umbrella.