The Bob Challenge.

 http://www.defense.gov/photoessays/photoessayss.aspx?id=627

In the book, "If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat," John Ortberg tells about a new Christian whose name was Bob. He was studying the Bible with his pastor and asked him if this verse was true: "Ask whatever you will in my name and you will receive it." His pastor told him it wasn't a blank check and you had to understand it along with Bible principles, but in essence it was true.

They then made a $500 wager; Bob would pray every day about something and if nothing happened the pastor would pay him. (Ortberg calls this the "Bob Challenge") So Bob chose to pray for Kenya, Africa. He had no ties there, no family or business, he just thought of Kenya and chose it.

Awhile later he was at a dinner party. He met a woman who ran the largest orphanage in Kenya. He told her about the wager and she asked him to fly to Kenya and see the place. He did and was moved by their needs. When he returned home he phoned some pharmaceutical companies and asked them to donate the medical supplies they didn't sell to the orphanage. Some of them did and the orphanage received over a million dollars worth of medicine.

The orphanage gave a celebration and Bob flew over. The president of Kenya was there. He met Bob and took him on a tour of Nairobi. They saw a prison and Bob found out it held political prisoners. Bob told the president he should let them go free.

Later the State Department called Bob to thank him for his role in getting the prisoners released. The State Department had been trying to do that for years.

After all this, the president of Kenya called Bob and asked him to fly over and pray with him about choosing his next cabinet. Bob did.

When I read this story I was reminded of how Joyce Meyer always says, "Believe God is working when you pray for something." I realized how weak my faith is. I know God listens and answers, but I should be more bold. I should be more inventive and more varied on what I pray for. This story was a good lesson for me.