Prayer of Moses

Prayer can change things. I take great confidence in the record of an interaction between Moses and God in Exodus 32 and Numbers 14. During that interaction, it says that God changed from being intent on destroying the Israelites to saving their lives. It is my hope that through our prayers, we can change God's mind just like Moses did to save Roscoe's life.

The Israelites rebelled against God shortly after he powerfully freed them from ~400 years of Egyptian slavery. God was so insulted by this that he told Moses that he intended to destroy the Israelites and start over with Moses, creating a new nation. Moses spoke to God about how it would look to other nations if he led his people into the wilderness, only to destroy them. Moses also spoke about God's qualities of forgiveness and love, and asked God to employ those characteristics in this circumstance to save his people. With that said, a wonderful verse appears:

"So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people." - Exodus 32:14

The point I draw from this is that prayer can change God's mind. God was already aware of everything Moses told him, so it wasn't a matter of Moses convincing God with his intellect. However, if Moses had never pleaded with God, the destruction would have come.

This is why I pray for Roscoe. To me it looks like God does not intend for Roscoe to live a long life. I pray because I hope that there is a chance God will change his mind and save Roscoe's life. I encourage others to pray for similar reasons that Moses spoke with God. In prayer I remind God to show his power to everyone reading this blog and who hears about Roscoe's story:

• I ask God to make Roscoe's story one of how he answers prayer and comes to the rescue of his people, rather than a story of how he let a child succumb to physical illness that's within his power to prevent. I ask God to consider how it will look to everyone out there who is praying for Roscoe, if he allows Roscoe to perish.
• I ask God to employ his powers of love, compassion, and forgiveness to save Roscoe's life. God is the creator of life and he has the right to take it away at his choosing, but I plead with him to not take Roscoe's life and to instead show love and compassion by prolonging it greatly.

Please join with me in prayer today as the doctors discuss whether surgery is an option for Roscoe, and while they discuss with us what are Roscoe's chances of survival.

PS: Click to see a related post about faith & prayer that I made the last time we were in UCSF.