The 24 Hour Musical is the ultimate musical theatre challenge in which a musical is announced, rehearsed, teched, and performed all within a 24 hour period. This past Saturday marked the performance of the second annual 24 Hour Musical for me and a group of other young Christians, but the planning for both the show and the event had been in the works for months.
This year, I had felt God putting the finances of the event on my heart. He gave me a number way back in February or March, that number was 5,000. $5,000 to give away to Living Water International in order to build a fresh water well in an area that does not have access to clean water. I asked the producer of the event what his donations goal was, without telling him the number God had given me. He told me that he hadn’t thought much about it, but he threw out a number anyway, guess what the number was, 5,000. Maybe it was foolish, but I took that as a confirmation.
I began to pray for that $5,000 every single day. I asked God that He would provide the money so that we could help to provide physical justice to people who were living abroad in squalor, and so that we might bring Him glory through our testimony of His provision.
As the project date crept closer however, the cost of the actual event was continuing to raise, and not very much fund raising money was coming in. Many others were beginning to doubt the possibility of actually raising $5,000 if we were already struggling to cover our costs. I continued to pray however, wrestling with thoughts of foolishness, standing on the promise God had given me.
By the time the week of the event arrived, I don’t think there was a single person who truly believed that in this economy we could raise $5,000 in donations at an event that attracts only 600 people, most of which are middle class families with many small children. It seemed as though everyone was a doubter, and even I had my moments, but that prayer kept popping up in my mind, so I would continue to circling, praying that God would come through.
During the event, time was obviously of the essence, but I tried to grab every extra spare opportunity I could to pray for the upcoming harvest. I did a few prayer walks around the building, and as the seats were filling up in the auditorium I was almost more excited to see what God was going to do out in the lobby more then I was excited to see what the performers were going to do on stage.
The first act was coming to close, the actors were doing wonderfully, when one of our event volunteers came over and whispered to me that we were already at $2,700. That made my Spirit do a bit of jump, but then I realized that donations probably weren’t going to double during intermission and after the show. People usual come to something like this and make their donation right away. Then God reminded me, just keep praying, and so I did. I sat in the back of the auditorium during the end of act one and I prayed for God to fill up that donation basket.
Two hour later I had the heart stopping pleasure of standing near the tech booth and listening to our show director announce that we had indeed reached $5,000, right on the button, exactly. I was overcome to the point of tears at how God had provided regardless of the circumstance.
Now I do not believe that because I prayed God gave the money, I don’t have that kind of power, no way. But I do believe that God delivers to those who are persistent in His will. I believed that He had promised $5,000, and so I persisted in that, not with as much strength as a I should have, against the odds, with the promise that if He did, that I would use the testimony of His provision to bring Him glory, that I would tell the story about when he came through in the clutch, down to the last dollar.
So brothers and sisters, I write to let you know that there is a God out there who is not only still capable of miracles, but is still performing them every day, and when we begin to listen to prayer persistently for those miracles, we can become a part of them ourselves, and then our story, your story, will be a story that bring glory to God for all time. Amen.
-jon
This year, I had felt God putting the finances of the event on my heart. He gave me a number way back in February or March, that number was 5,000. $5,000 to give away to Living Water International in order to build a fresh water well in an area that does not have access to clean water. I asked the producer of the event what his donations goal was, without telling him the number God had given me. He told me that he hadn’t thought much about it, but he threw out a number anyway, guess what the number was, 5,000. Maybe it was foolish, but I took that as a confirmation.
I began to pray for that $5,000 every single day. I asked God that He would provide the money so that we could help to provide physical justice to people who were living abroad in squalor, and so that we might bring Him glory through our testimony of His provision.
As the project date crept closer however, the cost of the actual event was continuing to raise, and not very much fund raising money was coming in. Many others were beginning to doubt the possibility of actually raising $5,000 if we were already struggling to cover our costs. I continued to pray however, wrestling with thoughts of foolishness, standing on the promise God had given me.
By the time the week of the event arrived, I don’t think there was a single person who truly believed that in this economy we could raise $5,000 in donations at an event that attracts only 600 people, most of which are middle class families with many small children. It seemed as though everyone was a doubter, and even I had my moments, but that prayer kept popping up in my mind, so I would continue to circling, praying that God would come through.
During the event, time was obviously of the essence, but I tried to grab every extra spare opportunity I could to pray for the upcoming harvest. I did a few prayer walks around the building, and as the seats were filling up in the auditorium I was almost more excited to see what God was going to do out in the lobby more then I was excited to see what the performers were going to do on stage.
The first act was coming to close, the actors were doing wonderfully, when one of our event volunteers came over and whispered to me that we were already at $2,700. That made my Spirit do a bit of jump, but then I realized that donations probably weren’t going to double during intermission and after the show. People usual come to something like this and make their donation right away. Then God reminded me, just keep praying, and so I did. I sat in the back of the auditorium during the end of act one and I prayed for God to fill up that donation basket.
Two hour later I had the heart stopping pleasure of standing near the tech booth and listening to our show director announce that we had indeed reached $5,000, right on the button, exactly. I was overcome to the point of tears at how God had provided regardless of the circumstance.
Now I do not believe that because I prayed God gave the money, I don’t have that kind of power, no way. But I do believe that God delivers to those who are persistent in His will. I believed that He had promised $5,000, and so I persisted in that, not with as much strength as a I should have, against the odds, with the promise that if He did, that I would use the testimony of His provision to bring Him glory, that I would tell the story about when he came through in the clutch, down to the last dollar.
So brothers and sisters, I write to let you know that there is a God out there who is not only still capable of miracles, but is still performing them every day, and when we begin to listen to prayer persistently for those miracles, we can become a part of them ourselves, and then our story, your story, will be a story that bring glory to God for all time. Amen.
-jon
