When I was young, Tom was a Christian farmer who lived not very far from our house. Since he was a Christian, he believed that every word in the Bible was absolutely true. And because he knew that God loved him so much that He had sent His own beloved Son to die for his sins, Tom didn’t want to ever disobey God’s Word.
One thing God’s Word tells us is that we should “owe no man anything, but to love one another” (Romans 13:88Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)). Loving one another is a debt every one of us has that we can never finish paying. But in Tom’s life, to owe anyone anything else would be a real sin. He also knew that he could trust God to answer his prayers. “The Lord . . . heareth the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:2929The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. (Proverbs 15:29)).
Tom’s farm was only about 80 acres, but in those days farmers didn’t have the equipment they have now, so 80 acres kept Tom very busy. Those 80 acres also supplied all his family’s needs if he had a good crop. Tom enjoyed his work and loved to watch the grain ripen in his fields. Often he thanked the Lord for His loving care in making the grain grow and ripen into a crop that supplied the family’s needs.
One day just before harvesttime, Tom saw a bad storm coming. It looked as though it might be a hailstorm. That would seriously damage the ripened wheat. But Tom knew that the Lord Jesus controlled the weather just as He had when He lived in Galilee. Tom had read many times how Jesus had calmed the storm on the sea when His disciples thought it was about to sink their ship. So Tom knelt down and prayed earnestly that the Lord would prevent the storm from ruining his wheat. “Otherwise,” Tom explained to the Lord, “I’ll be in debt, and the Bible says I must not do that. So please, Lord Jesus, save my wheat.”
The Lord rewarded Tom’s faith and saved his crop in a marvelous way. The hailstorm came right up to his field and then divided-part of the storm went to the right of his property and part to the left, and none of it touched his crop of wheat! The fields all around were shredded by the hail.
We were Christians too, so we were really thankful with Tom. People came from miles around to see the farm the Lord had so wonderfully protected in answer to Tom’s prayer of faith and obedience.
ML-01/21/2001