The Lord Will Save Me

There once was a story told of a man who was asked to evacuate his house because a flood was coming. He refused saying 'the Lord will save me'. All of his neighbours left the area and fled to safety but the stubborn man stayed. Soon the rain began and before very long the water was two feet deep in his living room. But the man was not worried. He still thought to himself 'the Lord will save me'. When the water had risen to four feet the man climbed out his window and onto the roof of his house. He sat there, alone, and comforted himself with the fact that 'the Lord will save me'.

By and by the man spotted another man rowing a boat towards his house. The man in the boat pulled up alongside of the house and yelled up to the man 'quick, climb down into the boat. I'm here to save you.' to which the man on top of the house replied 'no thank you, the Lord will save me'. The man in the boat left shaking his head.

The waters kept rising and the rain kept falling. The man started to shiver with cold but he kept telling himself 'the Lord will save me' and it gave him comfort. Suddenly he heard a helicopter over head. When the helicopter got above the man's house it hovered in the air and a man leaned out the open door and lowered a rope ladder. It was only inches above the man's head. The man in the helicopter told the man on the roof to grab hold of the ladder and he would pull him to safety, to which the man replied 'no thank you, the Lord will save me'. No amount of convincing on the part of the helicopter man could persuade the man on the roof to take the ladder. So the helicopter moved on.

The water had almost completely covered the man's house by this time and it was lapping at his feet but the man kept telling himself  'the Lord will save me'. The rain had stopped but suddenly he heard a loud crash and watched as lightening struck a tree not too far from him. A huge branch broke off and floated towards his house. He knew that he could jump and reach the branch but he was determined to wait until the Lord saved him, so he didn't leave the roof.

Not long after the man drowned. When he got to heaven he had only one question to ask of the Lord 'why didn't you save me? I trusted you!' to which the Lord replied 'I sent you a boat, a helicopter and a branch, why didn't you take the help when it was offered?'.

Maybe you've heard this story or a variation of it before. It's one of my favourites. So many people are waiting for God to move in some big way and to fix everything in their life that they feel is wrong but they are unwilling to see the many small things God has put in place to move them towards the path He wants them to walk on. Not all prayers are answered with 'yes'. Sometimes, when we pray God answers with 'not yet' or 'no'. He still is a loving God and sometimes a 'no' is His way of loving us enough not to give us what we ask for because He knows it wouldn't be good for us. 

It's hard to accept a 'no' from God when we are so sure that we know what is best for us. But ultimately we have to stand on His Word. He promises that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" Romans 8:28. Do you trust God even when He says 'no'?  Maybe God hasn't said 'no' maybe your answer is coming or maybe He has answered your prayer already, just like the man on the roof, but maybe He answered it differently than the way you thought He would. 

Look around you. Take a good look at your life. Maybe your answer is right in front of you waiting for you to recognize it for what it is. We can't simply just sit and wait for God to answer our prayer. We have to do everything we can to help ourselves and allow God to do the rest, the things we can't do. He is the God of miracles and maybe your miracle is just around the corner.

God blesses us each and every day but He expects us to do our part as well. God equips us with tools to help ourselves and we should use them as much as possible and rely on Him to do the rest. 

"I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that He will guide me to do whatever I'm supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I'm praying for strength." unknown