There are many places where you and I are not allowed to go, but God often uses our prayers to work behind closed doors. Closed doors are not a problem for a lizard either. In fact, when you stop to think about it, lizards and prayer have a lot in common. Here are just a few of the ways they are alike...
• Don't need a visa or passport to travel
• Squeeze into tight places
• Enter dangerous areas easily
Prayer Lizard
Missionary Aunt Tina tells of a time when a high government official was refusing to renew 50 foreign visas. (A visa is a special permit that a person needs to legally live and work in another country.) The government official bragged that he would not allow Christian workers to stay in his country for more than three years! The missionaries prayed asking God to either change the official’s heart or to remove him from office.
The missionaries received word that the official who was denying the visas had suddenly died from a heart attack. This made the missionaries sad. “Lord, we did not want him to die!” However, within two months all 50 of the visas were renewed allowing the missionaries to continue their work in the foreign country.
Sometime later another government official made a similar announcement that he would not renew any missionary visas. Again, the missionaries prayed asking God to either change the official’s heart or remove him from office, but this time they added, “but please don’t take his life!” Suddenly, the government official was given an early retirement, for no reason at all.
Even though it seemed like the missionaries were helpless and could not do anything, they could pray. Officials can order foreign workers to return to their home country, close churches and even burn Bibles, but nothing can stop God’s power at work in answer to prayer. Prayer is powerful! God can use our prayers, like a lizard, to move anywhere, even inside a king’s palace.
