Rosalind Goforth - How I Know God Answers Prayer: The Personal Testimony of One Life-Time

The Personal Testimony of One Life-Time

By
ROSALIND GOFORTH
(Mrs. Jonathan Goforth)
Missionary in China since 1888

"They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness."Psalm 145:7.

"Go... and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee."Mark 5:19.

IT seems fitting that this little book of personal testimonies toanswered prayer should have a brief introductory word as to how theycame to be written. The question has been asked by some who read many ofthese testimonies as they appeared in the pages of The Sunday SchoolTimes: "How could you write such personal and sacred incidents in yourlife?" I could not have written them but for a very clear, God-givenleading.

The story is as follows: When in Canada on our first furloughs I wasfrequently amazed at the incredulity expressed when definite testimonywas given to an answer to prayer. Sometimes this was shown by anexpressive shrug of the shoulders, sometimes by a sudden silence orturning of the topic of conversation, and sometimes more openly by thequery: "How do you know that it might not have happened so, anyway?"

Gradually the impression deepened: "If they will not believe one, two,or a dozen testimonies, will they believe the combined testimonies ofone whole life?"

The more I thought of what it would mean to record the sacred incidentsconnected with answers to prayer the more I shrank from the publicity,and from undertaking the task. There were dozens of answers far toosacred for the public eye, which were known only to a few, others knownonly to God. But if the record were to carry weight with those who didnot believe in the supernatural element in prayer, many personal andscarcely less sacred incidents must of necessity be made public.

Again and again I laid the matter aside as impossible. But I know nowthat the thing was of God. As months, even years, passed, the impellingsense that the record of answers to prayer must be written gave me norest.

It was at the close of the 1908-10 furloughduring which, as a family,we had been blessed with many and, to our weak faith, wonderful answersto prayerthat my oldest son urged me to put down in some definite formthe answers to prayer of my life, and extracted from me a solemn promisethat I would do so.

But months passed after returning to China, and the record had not beentouched. Then came a sudden and serious illness which threatened mylife, when the doctor told me I must not delay in getting my affairs inorder.

It was then that an overwhelming sense of regret took possession of methat I had not set down the prayer testimonies, and solemnly Icovenanted with the Lord that if he would raise me up they should bewritten.

There was no more question of what others might think; the one thoughtwas to obey. The Lord raised me up; and although he had to deal with mevery sternly once more before I really set myself to the task, thetestimonies that are given here were written at lastmost of them inodd moments of time during strenuous missionary journeys among theheathen.

Thus it will be seen that these incidents of answered prayer are notgiven as being more wonderful, or more worthy of record, than multitudesthe world over could testify to; but they are written and sent outsimply and only because I had to write them or disobey God.

ROSALIND GOFORTH.

"Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?... Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."The Lord Jesus Christ.

THE pages of this little book deal almost wholly with just one phase ofprayerpetition. The record is almost entirely a personal testimony ofwhat petition to my Heavenly Father has meant in meeting the everydaycrises of my life.

A prominent Christian worker, who read some of these testimonies in TheSunday School Times, said to the writer: "To emphasize getting thingsfrom God, as you do, is to make prayer too material."

To me this seems far from true. God is my Father, I am his child. Astruly as I delight to be sought for by my child when he is cold orhungry, ill, or in need of protection, so is it with my Heavenly Father.

Prayer has been hedged about with too many man-made rules. I amconvinced that God has intended prayer to be as simple and natural, andas constant a part of our spiritual life, as the intercourse between achild and his parent in the home. And as a large part of thatintercourse between child and parent is simply asking and receiving,just so is it with us and our Heavenly Parent.

Perhaps, however, the most blessed element in this asking and gettingfrom God lies in the strengthening of faith which comes when a definiterequest has been granted. What more helpful and inspiring than a ringingtestimony of what God has done?

As I have recalled the past in writing these incidents, one of the mostprecious memories is that of an evening when a number of friends hadgathered in our home. The conversation turned on answered prayer. Formore than two hours we vied with one another in recounting personalincidents of God's wonderful work; and the inspiration of that eveningstill abides.

A Christian minister once said to me: "Is it possible that the great Godof the universe, the Maker and Ruler of mankind, could or would, as youwould make out, take interest in such a trifle as the trimming of a hat!To me it is preposterous!"

Yet did not our Lord Jesus Christ say: "The very hairs of your head areall numbered"; and "not one sparrow is forgotten before God"; and again,"Your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of before ye askhim"?

It is true that "There is nothing too great for God's power"; and it isjust as true that "There is nothing too small for his love!"

If we believe God's Word we must believe, as Dan Crawford has terselyand beautifully expressed it, that "The God of the infinite is the Godof the infinitesimal." Yes, he

"Who clears the grounding berg
And guides the grinding floe,
He hears the cry of the little kit fox
And the lemming of the snow!"

No more wonderful testimony, perhaps, has ever been given of God'swillingness to help in every emergency of life, than that which MarySlessor gave, when asked to tell what prayer had meant to her. "Mylife," she wrote, "is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer.For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance givenmarvelously, for errors and dangers everted, for enmity to the Gospelsubdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything thatgoes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full andoften wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer.