Sun-stopping Faith
I want to pray ‘stop the sun’ prayers like Joshua, and then believe!
Do I have the ability to pray like that? Can I say the right words and stop the sun?
I’ve done some thinking about Joshua’s prayer and have arrived upon a surprising revelation. Joshua didn’t pray right. I mean, what he asked for wasn’t exactly worded right. He said, “Sun, stand still” (Joshua 10:13) but in fact, the sun is already still. The sun isn’t what is moving in the heavens. the Earth is moving! The Earth is revolving, moving, around the sun. It was the Earth that had to stop for the sun to stand still in the sky that day for Joshua to win his battle. Isn’t God amazing? He heard Joshua’s misinformed prayer and wasn’t put off by his lack of understanding at all. On the contrary, Joshua’s bold prayer of faith pleased God! He believed that God was powerful enough to stop the sun and more importantly, that He had full control of it. Joshua was second to Moses and then became leader of the nation of Israel. He operated in authority, knowing how to come under it and how to lead with it. Not understanding the physics of the cosmos was no hinderance to his prayer at all. It’s this kind of revelation that gets my faith growing. In an impossible situation, I don’t have to have the perfect words or understand everything I am talking about. I just need to know Who I am talking to.
The Centurion in Matthew chapter eight is given as an example of great faith. God taught me a life-changing lesson about him one day, many years ago. When my middle daughter was in fourth grade, she decided she was going to live in New York City someday. Her stubbornness as a child became an asset as she grew up, a person of determination and fortitude, she made it happen. When she was a senior in high school she applied and was accepted to a college in downtown Manhattan and with financial aid, student loans, private loans, and family gifts, we scraped up the money to get her there. Having been a single mother for several years, I was just newly married and trying to get my head above water again so when I say “scraped up the money” I mean it. Every couch cushion was turned over and every pant’s pocket had been turned inside out to make it happen.
The day in late August finally came and we packed her up and headed to the school. Several hours later we arrived and got her moved into her room with just enough time to turn around and head home. After a tight hug, I left my beautiful eighteen year old daughter in the middle of a city of eight million people with barely a couple of nickels to rub together in her purse. This was beyond nerve-wracking for me but, wonder struck at her dreams realized, she assured me that she would be fine. Her financial aid and loans would come through to the school in a few weeks and she would receive some over payment as cash to use for her expenses. Thankfully, she had a meal plan so we assumed she wouldn’t starve! But college is expensive and one located in New York City only compounded the spending. She needed money for laundry. She needed money for subway tickets to go almost everywhere, like the library for school assignments or to apply for a job. She needed money for books and supplies and the college bookstore had a ‘no credit’ policy. Those first few weeks of school, she was borrowing textbooks and walking all over the city. Being broke was stressful for her and heartbreaking for me.
Finally, the date in mid-September arrived for her to go to the bursar and receive her check. I’ll never forget the phone call I received that day, her voice cracking as she was trying to hold it together, “Mom. I can’t have any money until October. The school doesn’t give refunds to freshmen until then because students change their mind sometimes and end up wanting to transfer somewhere else. Freshmen can’t get any over payments until after that final withdrawal date. That’s the end of October.” It took me a second to come out of my shocked silence and even attempt to reply. I had nothing tucked away. There was no surplus in my bank account. I was utterly helpless and it was a horrible feeling. We cried and talked a few more minutes and then she said that she was going to go back to the bursars and try to talk to them again. She was desperate. I told her I would pray.
I must have had somewhere to go at the time because I remember getting in my car and praying as I drove. I prayed, begged, beseeched, and implored my God for a miracle. I continued praying, begging, beseeching, and imploring until I had poured out my heart at the top of my lungs and then I was just quiet. I felt a peace in my heart, knowing that my Father had heard me. I wish I could say that great faith flooded my heart. But, done praying, my mind continued to think about the situation. The more I thought about it, the more I talked myself out of the peace I had been feeling. “I’m going to call that school when I get home. I’m going to get a hold of someone there and I will convince them to help her.” In my anguish I yelled out, “Isn't there anyone who will understand and have compassion on the fact my daughter is hundreds of miles away from home with no money in a city full of strangers?” A still small voice interjected with a strange answer: “That is why the centurion had such great faith.” I was stunned at that statement and muttered, “Ah, what Lord?” He answered, “I thought You asked Me to take care of it.”
It never ceases to amaze me how God can speak a little and a whole lot of understanding just downloads to your heart. I had read the Bible story before, about a centurion who had a servant that was dear to him and was very sick. He goes to find Jesus and asks Him to heal the servant. Jesus agrees and as He turns to walk back towards his house, the centurion stops Him and says:
“Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!... Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour” (Matthew 8-10,13 NKJV).
Now, in this moment of my unbelief, I understood what marveled Jesus. It was the same thing that Joshua knew. The centurion understood authority. A centurion is a Roman soldier that has one hundred men under his command. He was under someone who gave orders and unquestioningly, he followed them. Like the centurion, I had asked God for help in this situation but unlike him, I didn’t trust God’s authority. That’s not faith. The centurion didn’t need to bring Jesus to his house and to watch over the process to be sure it was done right. When authority speaks, those under it make it happen. He knew that Jesus had the power and the authority to heal his servant right there, sight unseen. And Jesus called that great faith.
Now, still in my car, I was quick to repent of my unbelief and excited at this new understanding. I wanted to have great faith and be so daring as to believe God, without having to step in the middle of a situation to put my little fingerprint on it. As I drove back to my house, I had a different conversation with my Father: “I’m sorry, Lord. You’ve got this. I’m trusting You. Say the word and it will be done.”
I arrived home and had a message flashing on my answering machine (no cell phone in those days). It was my daughter, “MOM! Call me! You’re not going to believe what just happened!” Well, in fact, I did believe. I believed before I even heard, sight unseen. And the rest of the story goes like this: Ever-determined, my daughter went back to the bursars and waited for quite a while until a man finally called her back to his office. He sat her down and told her the same scenario about the schools policy and said that there was nothing he could do. Then he stopped mid-speech and looked at her. Something, or rather Someone, caused him to stop and ask her why she needed this money so urgently. She told him her situation. He then did something impossible. He reached down and opened a desk drawer from which he pulled out a large binder and wrote. He then ripped out a check and handed it across the desk to my daughter. The amount was for half the money she had coming and enough to help her until the rest came through. And these were his words that followed: “This is not our policy and I won’t do this again, but I all I know is, if my daughter was at a college in a big city full of strangers with no money, I would want someone to have some compassion on her and help her.”
Yes, those were the words that I had said to myself, alone in my car. I didn’t have to call the school and say it to anyone. I didn’t have to get involved in making anything happen the way I thought it should happen.
Why? Because my God says, “Go...Come...Do this…” and it happens.
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Hebrews 11:3
