Sun Stand Still Prayer

I have been reading through John with my middle school eGroup.  We are reading one chapter a day.  It has been great to devote time to one chapter of John a day.  I am learning so much from it.  I am taking pages of notes on what is standing out to me.

John 6 has the popular story of Jesus walking on water.  This story is always interesting to me. 

A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.  When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened.

John 6:18-19

Reading this sparked a thought... how often do we see Jesus and are still frightened?  I spent some time the morning I read John 6 to think about this question.  As I was driving to work, I got a figurative slap in the face.  I had been doing it for over a year!

In September of 2009, I walked into Elevation Church's first permanent campus in Matthews.  Upon walking in the doors, I had an overwhelming sense that God was going to do something great in my life there.  I felt Him make a huge promise to me, that made no sense at the time.

Months went by where I processed the promise.  A year later, Pastor Steven Furtick released a book called Sun Stand Still.  The book is about having audacious faith and believing God for the impossible.  I read this book and my life was changed.  I made a Sun Stand Still prayer based on the promise I felt God give me a year earlier.

Although I made the prayer, I was frightened to actually trust God with the prayer and refused to pray it.  What if He doesn't do it? and What if He doesn't come through? were thoughts that went through my head regularly.  A few months later, I began to get frustrated that my unprayed prayer wasn't coming true.  Isn't He an all-knowing God?  Doesn't He know about this?  Why doesn't He just answer my prayer?

I may be alone here.  I hope you can respect my honesty with you.  I was frustrated that God wasn't answering a prayer that I was afraid to trust Him with. 

But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid."

John 6:20

About a month ago, I was reevaluating the prayer and where I was with it.  God wasn't answering the prayer, because I was too frightened to actually trust Him to do it.  I needed to have the audacious faith to believe that He could do what seemed impossible to me.  For the first time, I prayed the prayer with belief that He could and would do it. 

Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

John 6:21

No lie, the next day, I got some unexpected amazing news related to the prayer.  All I needed to do was trust that He could do it.  He knew it was a desire of my heart, but He needed me to trust Him.  The moment that I showed my trust, He honored it by showing me the first step in the prayer coming to life.

I am sharing this with you today in hopes that you will begin to trust God with something that seems impossible and a little scary.  He can do it!  He made the sun stand still for Joshua.  He can do it in your life, you just have to be willing to ask and walk in faith.