1984 January/February issue Part 5

Questions and Answers

From a California seminar;

“What are the three or four books which have had the greatest impact on your life apart from the Bible?”

Four very important books (I can’t be sure they’re the most important) are:

Amy Carmichael, Toward Jerusalem

George McDonald, Salted with Fire

C.S Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost

Romano Guardini, The Lord

“Please explain exactly how you ‘commit’ a person or situation to God. Is it saying the words and choosing to believe against all odds that He will do it? e.g. an adult child’s salvation, a young adult on drugs, a homosexual nephew.”

This question implies that when a person has been “committed”, God will do exactly what the one who prays hopes for, viz. save the child, cure a drug habit or the homosexuality. To me, commitment means handing a person or situation completely over to God: “Here Lord. I give this to You, trusting You to do exactly what You want to do. I’m sure that will be the best thing.” We are commanded to make our request known to God (Phil 4:16). This means we pray about things we would like to see done or changed, but the trusting soul knows his requests may be “impossible” (see Matthew 26:39, 42), so he leaves them peacefully with God. God has given us freedom to choose. He will not retract the gift. The one prayed for may still refuse His offer of grace, as did many in Jesus’ days on earth. Yet we are encouraged to be importunate in prayer. We must trust the Spirit of God to lead us- to continue praying, or, in some cases, to stop. (1 John, 4:16-17)