Complete Trust

And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature."  Numbers 13:32

Moses had sent out twelve men to spy out the promised land.  The men had returned with an abundance of fruit from the land, but gave the people a bad report.  With fear they described the people who inhabited the land.  Their conclusion was that if the people went into the land they would be devoured.

It would seem very odd that God would through mighty wonders deliver His people from Egypt, and then lead them into the land he had promised them, only to have them swallowed up.  Yet, that is what the spies reported to the people, and the people believed them.  Because the Children of Israel did not trust the Lord they were not able to enter into His promises.

I wonder how many times we mirror Israel's lack of faith.  There is that little nagging fear in most of us that keeps us from trusting God completely.  We shy away from total trust, as if the God who died for us would lead us to places that would devour us.  God's promises are sure, He loves us and we are under His grace, so let's trust Him!
  

Are You Praying?

"Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench."
I Kings 18:38

The four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal had called out to their god for at least six hours.  They hollered and danced and cut themselves but after all that time and ruckus, we are told "there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
After the prophets of Baal had finished, Elijah stood and said a very short prayer that takes up only two verses of the Bible, and at the end of his prayer, God heard and answered by consuming the sacrifice with fire from heaven.  Out of curiosity I timed myself reading the short prayer of Elijah, and it took me twenty one seconds.  Think about it, the pagan prophets prayed six hours and nothing happened, Elijah prayed twenty one seconds and the power of God reigned down.

There are some good lessons from this.  The first obvious lesson is you can pray all day to nothing and nothing will happen.  Second, the length of the prayer isn't as important as faith in the One you are praying to.  God hears our prayers and answers our prayers.  Are you praying?