Chapter 11 in Hebrews is a passage in the Bible commonly referred to as the Faith Hall of Fame. Have you ever read it? Let me rephrase that question. Have you ever read it before you approached God in prayer? Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us therefore come BOLDLY unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need."
Many times I find myself praying without boldness, reciting a prayer, praying too generally, and failing to recognize that King Jesus cares about my specific needs. But when I read Hebrews 11 before I pray, something changes. Something happens. If faith comes by hearing the Word of God, then I believe faith becomes supercharged and electric when you read the Faith Hall of Fame chapter! That is exactly what happened to my faith one night about 3 years ago.
If you haven't read Hebrews 11 yet, go read it. I'll put some cute asterisks down here so you can pause reading my silly words and go read THE WORD.
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That was a powerful chapter. Don't you think?
When I read these verses 3 years ago, I was so frustrated that our house was not selling. Fortunately, we were not in a position that we had to sell our house, but we really needed more room. We got a new realtor. We did some major and necessary work on the house. We dropped the price. We prayed. We cried. (Okay, I cried.) We prayed some more, but that night my prayer was full of supercharged faith.
I had just read about the awesome things God did for Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Moses, the Israelites, Gideon, etc. I recognized that I was about to approach God, who caused the Red Sea to part for the Israelites to walk through on dry ground, the God who caused the walls of Jericho to fall because a people of faith marched around them, and the God who stopped the mouths of lions. It was at that time, I approached the throne of grace boldly and specifically.
I prayed with my eyes open as I read to God my favorite scenes from the Faith Hall of Fame chapter. He didn't need to be reminded of what He did then, but I wanted to let Him know I acknowledged His power and my faith in His power.
Then very specific prayers began to flow for my friends and family whose needs were more important than my house selling.
When it came time to pray for my need (or want), I said, "God, if You can do all these things mentioned in Hebrews 11, then I know You can make this house sell. I know that if You wanted to, you can let someone who has never seen our house place an offer on it."
One week later, our realtor called saying we had an offer on the house. Since we had a showing a couple days before, I asked her if it was the lady who came by that day. She said, "No. That lady who came by was looking for a house for her daughter, who lives in Alaska. Her daughter placed the offer on the house." I thought I would fall over dead right there, but instead I began to cry and told our realtor what I had prayed the week before.
I'm going to type a few more asterisks so you can take a praise break with me.
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Many people who may come across this blog are dealing with situations that are more life altering than mine was 3 years ago. If God cares enough about me and my desire to sell that house, then how much more does He care about your needs? You don't have to be prayed over by the latest, greatest preacher, and you don't have to wait until the next time you attend church. You can pray in faith right now. You can pray and acknowledge God's authority and power all by yourself. He will meet you right where you are, and He will show you that He cares. He will do things for you that you would never imagine possible, and you will be able to write your own Faith Hall of Fame chapter!
(Before I go, I do need to clarify for the people who know who bought our house and who lives there now. She is not from Alaska. The offer from the lady in Alaska fell through, and a week later we received another offer that led to our house officially being sold. The fact that the first offer from Alaska didn't go through didn't get me down because God had already shown me that He had not forgotten me and that He heard my specific request. In fact, we raised the price of the house and it still sold within a week of that first offer. God knew what He was doing! If you read my prayer again, I specifically prayed about someone making an offer. To be more specific, I could have said "buy our house" instead of "make and offer." LOL!!!)
(Before I go, I do need to clarify for the people who know who bought our house and who lives there now. She is not from Alaska. The offer from the lady in Alaska fell through, and a week later we received another offer that led to our house officially being sold. The fact that the first offer from Alaska didn't go through didn't get me down because God had already shown me that He had not forgotten me and that He heard my specific request. In fact, we raised the price of the house and it still sold within a week of that first offer. God knew what He was doing! If you read my prayer again, I specifically prayed about someone making an offer. To be more specific, I could have said "buy our house" instead of "make and offer." LOL!!!)
