The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Cascades of Grace"
"We pray a simple prayer. God answers in sublime and superlative ways that cascade far beyond the scope of our realization and awareness."
When God answers a prayer, the effect and benefit cascades.
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Suppose we ask our Heavenly Father to provide daily bread for Sally. He answers, and Sally is personally blessed. However, the answer does not stop in Sally. God supplies for her need in a manner that makes possible her appreciation of Him, and growth in the awareness of His loving presence and involvement in her heart and life. This prepares her to minister His grace and truth to someone else in a manner that would have have happened had we not prayed, and more importantly, had God not answered our request. Perhaps Sally will herself be better equipped to pray for others. Or she may be enabled and motivated to walk with the Lord more faithfully, and communicate His truth by example of life and word of mouth. The blessing that began with the Holy Spirit motivating our prayer for Sally's daily bread cascades into untold and ongoing "grace for grace" as our Father answers in ways "exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think (John 1:16).
The Bible speaks in superlatives regarding God's working in the hearts and lives of His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). We presently live in a world wherein the immeasurable abundance cannot always be seen, heard, touched, and felt. It nevertheless teems all around and within us, like the trillions of atoms that compose our bodies without our sensing their presence and power. Prayer provides one means whereby we make conscious determinations to be aware by faith that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). We pray a simple prayer. God answers in sublime and superlative ways that cascade far beyond the scope of our realization and awareness. Yes, Sally may be blessed by God's provision. But who else will benefit as the gift she receives becomes a measure far beyond her daily bread? What prayers will she pray? What words will she say? What acts of faith and obedience will she perform in her sphere of influence as a simple prayer results in our Lord's ongoing and cascading answers through Sally's heart and life?
We will not fully know in this life, and perhaps not even in the next as a prayer offered in time becomes a means whereby God's answers multiply forevermore. Few truths more motivate our approach to the throne of grace for one another. Yes, ask God for a loaf. He supplies with a life, His "life more abundant" that cascades "exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think." The more and better we discover such assurance in the pages of Scripture and along the path of righteousness upon which we walk with the Lord, the more we will "come boldly unto the throne of grace" for others and ourselves (Hebrews 4:16). Simple prayers. Sublime and superlative answers. A cascade of grace. Such is the life of communion with God, and His abundance administered far beyond the scope of our realization, and far greater than we can ask or think.
"How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures."
(Psalm 36:7-9)
Weekly Memory Verse
How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.
(Psalm 36:7)
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