Bananas, Not Worms

I was really encouraged the other night listening to the radio. Missionary Darlene Rose came on, and was talking about her experience as a prisoner while serving in Asia. She had been accused of being a spy and talking on a radio in the jungle, of which she was innocent, but was held in a prison for a long time and tortured. She said she had been in there under poor conditions so long that she was suffering from malaria, dropsy, and a few other serious health issues. One day they brought her porridge because she wasn’t able to eat rice (because it was solid food). She thought the white stuff on top of it was coconut, but realized when she got close that it was actually worms.

She decided to go ahead and try to eat it. She managed to get a few bites down, but couldn’t eat any more. She thanked God for it, though, because she knew she could have gone without anything to even put in her stomach. She climbed to the top of her cell to the window where she could get some cool air on her face since her fever was so bad. She looked out the window and saw a woman carrying a large fruit basket. There were several bananas in the basket, and they looked so good! She prayed, and said, “God, I will not ask you for much. I don’t want a bunch of bananas. Could you just send me one banana?”

She said she then began to think of how God was going to answer her prayer, like a lot of us do when we pray. She thought through the guards, and concluded that none of them would bring her a banana. She thought about asking a guy that came by every now and then, because he seemed nice, but she realized that he would be shot if he got caught giving her a banana. She couldn’t figure out how God could possibly get her a banana, so she prayed and told God she was sorry. She had asked Him for something too hard, and wasn’t grateful for what she had. She told Him she really was grateful for the porridge, and was sorry she had asked for an impossible thing. 

Later that day a guard she had met at the other prison knocked on her door. He smiled at her, and she got so happy because she hadn’t seen anybody smile in so long. He was surprised, but he came in and talked with her. She told him she wanted to tell him about someone she met in Arizona when she was nine. She told him how she met Jesus, and how He had saved her. She told the guard that when Jesus comes into your heart, He fills it with love and you have no room for hate. She told the guard she didn’t hate him for what he had done to her. The guard cried as he listened. He left her alone in her cell, and went outside to talk with the other guards. A few hours later, her door opened, and they carried in bananas into her cell. They didn’t bring her just one, or two; they brought 92 bananas into her cell!

Instead of diving into them, she pushed them all to the other side of the cell away from her. She told God how sorry she was, that she was unworthy of the bananas. She had told Him she was sorry for asking Him to even bring her one banana, and he brought her 92 of them. She finally brought herself to eat them. After a few days as she was eating the last banana, they opened the prison door and released her.

It made me think about how often we pray and ask God for things, specific things, and because we can’t see how God could possibly do it, we don’t trust Him. Haven’t we all been guilty of praying for something and then trying to figure out how God is going to do it? Maybe you have prayed for a spouse, and then thought you knew God’s plan and pushed to make it happen, only to have it fail and your heart broken. Maybe you have asked God to move in your finances, but are overwhelmed and can’t see how God could possibly move in your situation. Maybe you have a dream that God gave you, but you’ve tried and tried to make it happen and it seems like it’ll never go anywhere.

That brings us to what is so awesome about God! He loves to do “exceedingly above all that we can ask or think.” He can take an impossible situation and turn it around. Think about Abraham, and how God had given him the promise of a son. Sarah gave up hope that she would have kids, so she figured out another “way” God could give him a son, through her maidservant Hagar. However, God had His own plan. He allowed Sarah to have Isaac when she was 90. So often we try to figure out how to help God answer our prayers, but we forget that He doesn’t need our help. He just wants us to trust Him that He’ll do what He says. He doesn’t forget His promises, and He doesn’t give us dreams just to let them die.

Also, Missionary Darlene Rose thanked God for the porridge because she thought that was the best He could do. She allowed herself to be content with what she had although she had asked for more. Likewise, Abraham tried to be content with Ishmael as his heir instead of a son through his wife because he couldn’t understand yet how God could do it another way. What’s sad is we often seem to do the same thing. We pray for something specific, and then try to be content with the first thing that comes along, assuming it’s from God. The bible says in Luke 11:11-13, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

Don’t settle for less than what God wants to give you. He is always faithful, and He’ll always do what He promises. Just wait on Him and His will in your life. You don’t have to try to figure out how to make God’s will happen. He is already working on your behalf, and wants you to trust Him and submit your will to Him. If only we could understand how great God’s love is for us, we wouldn’t be afraid of in trusting Him. The bible says perfect love casts out all fear. Sometimes it can be difficult to trust God with our lives, our will, and our future, but the closer we get to God and the more we love Him, the easier it becomes to trust Him. He has big plans for your life; just trust Him to make them happen, and He’ll do bigger things than you ever thought possible.