Open the floodgates

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. ‘Test me in this’, says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10 NIV

It has been an eventful few weeks in our house. Our daughter’s boyfriend sent me a simple text asking me to lunch. It occurred to me he was either asking me to help paint his house or he wanted to talk to me about Aly. What resulted was one of the best conversations I have ever had.

It was two weeks from the day we had lunch until the time he proposed. During that time my wife and I would randomly break into either tears of joy or laughter. The best way to describe it was that there was no more room for joy inside us so some of it had to escape once in a while so we would not explode. God threw open the floodgates. Joy is powerful.

What Logan asked for that day was my permission to marry her. He showed up with his heart in his hand with a simple request. What he did not realize is that he not only had permission, he also had our blessing, our encouragement, our support and any help they may ever need from us. It has been obvious that he loves our daughter for a while. You can see it in her eyes. My opinion of Aly is no doubt clouded by her being ours, but in my opinion, she really is one of the best people I have ever met. She has found a way to use her gifts and experience. She has a personality that just makes me smile. She has chosen to pursue teaching and has a true fire in her heart for it. She loves as completely as anyone I know. How could he not love her? Honestly, we feel the same way about Logan. She loves him completely. You can see it in his eyes. They both hit the jackpot.

Afterward I pulled out an old prayer journal. Around 15 years ago on a page with Aly’s name on the top of it I wrote “Peace. Worries. Understanding. Friendships. Relationship with Korbin. Use of her gifts and her personality. For her spouse to know You, for him to be able to love her through worries and anxieties, that he is funny and handsome”. It really is amazing. When you pray for someone that long and have him walk in and introduce himself it is pretty obvious that God had a plan. Marriage has been a conversation for a while, but really permission to was not ours to give. She gave herself; her family agrees.

I realized in this process that I often make requests of God thinking too small. Often, I think I hold up a thimble to hold His response while forgetting that He has Niagara Falls at His disposal. I am not vain enough to think that Logan showed up due to me – or Mary and Aly - praying. I think God had a plan better than we could fathom all along. God used His measure and that is beyond anything we can understand in spite of our attempts to do so. I think we somehow think that if our faith is perfect, God will be better able to respond. The problem with this is that it makes us the important part of the equation when we are clearly not, God is. Faith is important, but aside from Jesus, none of our biblical examples showed “perfect” faith. God used them in spite of themselves.

What is your most frequent prayer request? Do you think your request is limited by you?

What examples in your life demonstrate God’s measure being different than yours? Does His measure usually end up better than you imagined?

Challenge: Keep a journal. Write down the answered prayers as you go. The “Answered Prayer” section will end up longer than the requests. In time you too will be able to look back and marvel that His plan was different, and better, than anything you could imagine. He has floodgates.

Rick Claiborn