The thirty-two foot motorboat, Sea Lark, was between Miami and Bimini when water entered the engine and shut it down. Wallowing helplessly in six- to eight-foot waves, the Sea Lark began to fill and to sink. The five people on board grabbed a rope and a cooler and tied themselves together with the cooler. Of course they would be picked up soon! But only one freighter passed. It did not stop.
Hours went slowly by, and the five grew cold and tired and weak. After eleven hours in the water, hope was growing very dim. It was “a long, lonely, dark night,” said Janice Guthrie, the boat’s owner. Suddenly they spotted a fishing boat, the Corgelo, and Janice began praying out loud.
She said, “Within three minutes, that boat turned around toward us and floored it!”
Tony Tomasi, of the Corgelo, said, “Normally we fish to the north. It was just a fluke I noticed them!”
Was it a fluke?
SHE PRAYED.
Eight-year-old Robert Deming just couldn’t accept the report his family received. His older brother, Richard, was missing in action in the Pacific Ocean on April 26.
No! No! No! Not Richard! Robert could only think of one thing to do: He knelt by his bedside and prayed, “Please, God, let us get a letter from Richard dated April 29!”
Could prayer do any good? What do you think?
On May 11 a letter came—dated April 29—from Richard. He was in a hospital in China.
HE PRAYED!
When a late freeze was threatening the entire strawberry crop and all the new growth on the citrus trees, how did the growers cope? They held a prayer vigil and prayed until midnight. People came in to pray. The weather seemed unchanged and the forecasts were still for a hard freeze when an unexpected cloud cover formed and insulated the ground—and the crops—from the bitter cold.
“Throughout the night, our prayer was that God would hold the reading in the mid-30s,” one grower said, “and He did.”
THEY PRAYED.
And the crops were saved.
Have you ever prayed? Probably! And when you prayed, did you promise, “God, save me from this danger—this grief—this loss—and I’ll do anything You ask”? That’s likely too.
But what does God want you to do? There is a very clear answer in the Psalms. When the writer asks, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” he quickly answers himself, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (Psalm 116:12-1312What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? 13I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. (Psalm 116:12‑13)).
That’s it! The Lord isn’t asking for our money, our work, or even our prayers and penances. All He asks is that we receive the “cup of salvation” that is held out to us and trust in the name of the Lord. He is “kind unto the unthankful and to the evil”; He is “longsuffering . . . not willing that any should perish.” Was there ever a God like this?
Psalm 116:1414I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. (Psalm 116:14) says this: “I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people.” Wouldn’t it be good to acknowledge all His goodness and kindness to you, thank Him for all, and accept that cup of salvation for the future—the future not only for time, but for all eternity?