I have been struck by the fact that the supernatural option is usually our last resort instead of our first consideration. Christianity is at its heart contingent on the supernatural. You have to work very hard to make any sense out of the Scriptures if you don't believe that there are times when the Lord suspends what we deem to be the laws of nature.

For example, Jesus violated the law of gravity when He ascended into heaven. Lazarus broke a few "laws" when he was raised from the dead. The Jordan River is stopped at flood stage. The Red Sea parts to allow a million people to cross on dry land. What are we to make of all of this? In the example from which I took the title of this message, the man of God prayed and the sun stood still.

It is an either/or proposition. Either these things happened or they didn't. We cannot with integrity and intellectual honesty make those verses say something else or allegorize when the author did not allegorize. The implications of all of this on our day to day prayers are huge. Are we to expect that the Lord can and will do what we deem to be supernatural?

Charleton Heston, who starred in Ben Hur, tells the story of a conversation he had with the director during the filming of the famous chariot race. Heston did many of his own stunts, and he was anxious about controlling the horses and "winning" as the script said he must. The director said, "Your job is to hang on. It is my job to see that you win."

It is not our job to determine the answers to our prayers. It is, however, our job to "hang on" to every word of God, and trust that He will bring about an outcome in accordance with His will. We can and should expect that when we pray, the Lord has the power to do the miraculous.