So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.
– Judges 13:19–20
What a scene. This is the story that precedes the birth of Samson in the book of Judges. And there’s a lot we can talk about here when it comes to Samson and his parents. But the picture I want to hone in on and lead us to pray according to is this image of Manoah and his wife giving this offering on this rock to the Lord.
Judges 13:19–20 shows how God’s wonders lead us to worship.
And the Lord is described, God is described as “The one who works wonders”. Is that not a great description of God? And I love the way even the rest of the story unfolds as they encounter God in this wonderful way, and they fall on their faces to the ground. I just want to remind you today that you serve and worship, and you know the God who works wonders. This is who God is. And I want to invite you to ask God to work wonders in your life, in your family, in your friends’ lives, in your church, and in the world around you.
Let’s ask God to work wonders because he’s the one who does this. He’s the one who works wonders. And I love how it even says that Manoah and his wife were watching and just waiting to see the wonders of God in a way that eventually led them on their faces to the ground. And so, let’s praise God as the One who works wonders, and let’s pray. Let’s fall on our faces to the ground, and let’s pray for God to work wonders.
Judges 13:19–20 calls us to seek God’s intervention with confidence.
Oh God, we believe this about you. We believe what Judges 13:19 says about you, that you are the wonder-working God, that you are omnipotent. You have all the power to do the impossible. And so we ask you to do it. Oh God, I’ve got things in my own life and family I’m praying for that are coming to my mind right now. I know others have things. God, help us not to be bashful or shy in our praying but to ask you to work wonders. God, we pray that you would work wonders in specific ways in our lives and our families… The things that might come to our mind that fit in that category.
Oh God, you are the wonder-working God. Please do it. Show yourself as the wonder-working God in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in the cities where we live, in the lives of people we’re praying for, and in the circumstances we’re walking through. Oh God, we trust you. We know that you are all wise, and if you choose not to work a wonder in ways that we ask, we trust you.
We trust your power and your wisdom and your love, that you’re not not doing that wonder because you’re not able to, because you are infinitely able, or you’re not working that wonder because you’re not loving, because you’re infinitely loving, that you are infinitely wise, and that would mean you don’t always do exactly what we say because you are so much wiser than we are. At the same time, oh God, we want to be bold and ask you to work wonders.
Prayer for the Sahrawi People
God, as we pray for unreached people, we know every day we pray for unreached people, we’re asking for a wonder to be worked. Lord, we pray today for the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara and Morocco for 476,900 men, women, and children who are Muslim right now and don’t have the gospel. God work a wonder, we pray, so that the Sahrawi people would be reached with the gospel. We pray for that. God, please do it. You’re the God who works wonders.
Work that wonder on behalf of the Sahrawi people and thousands of other people groups like them, even as we ask you to work all kinds of other wonders in our lives. Oh, we pray all this according to your Word, which we love, in Judges 13:19–20. And oh God, we pray that you would help us to praise you as the wonder-working God when you work those wonders to fall on our faces to the ground in worship. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
