Time to

Ask Big

By Scott Tonk

EDITOR’S NOTE: Once in a while we get a letter to the editor, such as this one, which just seems to be a word from the Lord.  The author is a skilled copy writer, an ordained priest, a scholar, and a long-time friend and supporter of the Bray Family ministries. He first joined our efforts for Christ during our Chicago days in the mid-1970s. He now resides in Cape Coral, Florida.

Dear Bill and Ivy,

I think it's time to stress that we have a BIG God who wants us to pray BIG prayers.

In the Letter of James (4:1-2, RSV) we read these words:  "You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."

Overseas Students Mission does not have, because we do not ask, and we ask and do not receive,

because we are afraid that if we ask the Lord, who is the God of heaven and earth, for too much, He will not answer.

So we ask our BIG God for too little.  And guess what?  He answers our prayer for too little.  And then we wonder why we are short what we really need - and what He knows we really need.

O foolish brother and sister Christians!  We ask timidly, and so we receive the answer to our timidity, namely, very little.  And the ministry starves to death.

But God doesn't want us to ask Him timidly.  He wants to ask Him boldly not for the minimum we need but for the maximum He wishes to shower upon us.

We are so foolish and timid!  Instead of asking God for only $7,000 per month, we should be asking him for 10 times that amount, 100 times that amount, 1,000 times that amount.  The ministry doesn't need just the amount to maintain the minimum operation but to reach the maximum for Christ.

I don't ever want to see another "Praise Report for Intercessors" that asks us to pray for the minimum when He wants us to ask Him for the resources to reach All Nations.  Asking for the minimum shows us to be of minimum faith. Let us rather therefore ask God to increase our faith to the maximum, that we will boldly approach the Throne of Grace and ask for what this ministry

really needs, which is probably something on the order of SIX FIGURES A MONTH.  And maybe asking for that is asking for too little.

We have a BIG GOD.  Let's stop praying little, tiny prayers and start praying BIG PRAYERS.

Yes, indeed, the crisis is at root spiritual - and the spiritual crisis is us.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,

Scott Tonk +

August 13, 2009

BILL REPLIES: By God’s grace, you have heard me ask for the minimum for the last time. I am ashamed of myself. How dare I ask just enough to survive another month! Thanks for the much-needed rebuke.