Prayers Needed for Matt Maupin

I’ve never met Matt Maupin. Our daughter, who graduated from Glen Este High School in 2003, is acquainted with him and remembers that at Sam’s Club, where they both worked, Matt was unfailingly kind, always encouraging. Away on a college internship, our daughter cried when she saw the videotape released by Matt’s captors on network news.

I suppose that like all people in the tristate this morning, my thoughts have been with Matt. The execution of Paul M. Johnson, Jr., by a cell of al-Qaida yesterday, only heightens the sense of danger one has for Matt Maupin.

It also can lend power to our prayers, I think. In one of my favorite books, Prayer by Ole Hallesby, we’re told that prayer consists of two things: helplessness and faith. Those two elements have certainly been present whenever I have genuinely prayed. And they’re present in my prayers for Matt Maupin today.

Often, when we pray, we simply ask God to bless what we’ve already decided that we’re going to do. Or, we ask God to endorse our solution to a problem.

But when we’re helpless, we realize that only God knows best. Until we’re helpless, we won’t get out of God’s way and allow Him to do His will.

The truly helpless person gives God a blank check and says, “It’s too big for me, God. Please take control of the situation. If there’s something I need to do, I’ll do it; just show me. But I want You to call the shots, come up with the plan, do what’s best.”

As to that other element of genuine prayer, faith, Jesus says that we don’t need much faith when we pray. He says that with faith as small as a tiny mustard seed, mountains can be moved.

So, this morning, I prayed again for Matt Maupin. I prayed for his safe release. I prayed that God would comfort and encourage his family as they endure the agony of waiting.

But I also prayed that wherever Matt may be right now, that Jesus will go to him, wrap His burly carpenter arms around Matt, and let Matt know that God has not forgotten him. I asked Jesus to assure Matt that he is loved by God, and also by his family and friends. I asked God also to provide for Matt’s physical needs as he endures captivity. And I prayed that God will open the hearts of his captors and decide to set Matt free.

I look forward to the day when Matt Maupin can return to his family and friends and to our community. Right now, I feel helpless and I feel trust. I’m helpless because this is a situation bigger than any of us, a situation unfolding thousands of miles away from us in Union Township. And I feel trust, faith, not in my own mountain-moving faith; I feel faith in the mighty Mountain Mover. We need God, the Mountain Mover, not just to obtain Matt’s release, but to provide for Matt’s needs while still being held.

No matter how discouraging the news these past few days, let’s keep offering up our prayers to God for Matt Maupin. God is the one Who can light Matt’s way home!