Here are friends in Hawaii praying for our ministry.

Scripture

While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.Hebrews 5:7-10

Observation

Jesus shouted not because God was deaf but because he needed to put heart into his prayers. It’s good to know that we can shout once in awhile like a man who has shut his finger in the door. Shouting helps us to process the pain.What changed God’s heart in Jesus’ prayer was not his volume but the heart of his prayer. He was heard because of his deep reverence for God.

Isn’t it odd to think that shouting is a sign of reverence? But there is a deep respect in desperation for it means that we believe that God is the only answer. Desperation is one way that we honor the great capacity of the Lord.

Application

Let me reminisce about high decibel prayers.I was a young pastor percolating with vision. The entrance to our new church building was on a busy road on the crest of a hill. The worship center was tucked away in a valley away from public view.

With my know-it-all enthusiasm I knew the solution. In the days when most churches in town had rickety hand-painted signs, I had seen a church with an illuminated plexi-glass sign, 15 feet tall with movable track lettering. Today that’s ho-hum, but in the 80’s it had never been done by any church in our town. I knew we needed that sign. So in 1988 I wrote on a little prayer card, “Lord, give us a sign with moveable track letters so that as cars drive up the road they will receive a blessing.”

After four years of praying weekly for the sign, time came to ask the elders to put it up. We were on the verge of opening the building. It made sense to invite the community. The money was there to pay for it, but the elders wanted carpet in the new building first.

What good was carpet, I reasoned, if no one could find the front door of the church? So I turned my anger into prayer. I drove to the state forest and hid among the trees. I began to pray. As I prayed I could see the 24,000 cars per day that drove past the front door of the church. I knew he loved these lost people. So I started asking the Lord for a sign. My volume grew until the bark peeled from the trees. Then as soon as it had started I felt that I was done. I drove to my office at peace.

When I came back to the office the phone rang. It was a lady in the church. She explained how her auntie had passed away some months before. She had inherited a large portion of her estate. She wanted the church to have a sign on the main road and she wanted to donate the funds to pay for it. The cost was $7,500 and she would pay for it.

She insisted we use the best in the sign industry. We ended up not just with a first class sign but great heart in it as well. One of the lost friends I had been praying for heard about our plans. He volunteered to lay the bricks for the foundation. As I helped him to lay each stone I thought that only the Lord could have a lost man erect a sign to guide lost people. Within a few years he said yes to Christ, but not before that sign led many home to Jesus. That sign and its changing messages went on for the next 10 years to transform the lives of people driving up that hill. We averaged 2 or 3 calls per week from the community of people who liked our sayings. We had one taxi driver who would do a u-turn so he could read the quote on the reverse side of the signboard. We had one story of a lady who read a message and drove on to give her life to Christ. We had another story of a lady given great hope as she drove to her chemotherapy appointment. Best of all, the first Christmas after the sign went up our congregation tripled in size because neighbors read our sign and came to church.

It was worth shouting in the State Forest to see that happen.

Prayer

I’m shouting Lord because I know you can hear and you alone can make a difference.