It was the end of the school year, and my colleagues from Grade 4 were briefing me on the students I would be receiving the following year. “It’s a difficult class,” they said. “Not at all like the great class you have now!”

I had to chuckle. They had forgotten that just one year earlier they were telling me about the class that they were now calling “great”… And the word “great” hadn’t been in their discourse! Rather, they had labeled my current class as the worst in the school…

My mind drifted back to the previous summer. I had known I would have over 30 students, and that most of them had already been labeled “special needs”. I had known that I wouldn’t be able to do my best with them without the help of my Heavenly Father, and I had spent the summer praying for my upcoming class.

As the school year began, it had immediately been apparent that the Grade 4 teachers hadn’t been kidding. They were, indeed, the “worst class in the school”! I continued to pray for them. I even went to school early every morning to pray over every desk, specifically mentioning the individual problems of each of the students. I did this for three months, and slowly but surely, I began to see changes in my class. The students began to be nicer with one another – more courteous and thoughtful of each other’s needs. That’s the moment this class morphed from being “difficult” to being “great”!

I just smiled now at the grade 4 teachers who were busy commenting on how “lucky” I had been to have been given such a “great” class. They had obviously forgotten how “terrible” that same bunch of students had been just one year earlier…

As I thought over the past year, I realized that I hadn’t done anything on my own to change those students. Instead, I had followed David’s advice in Ps. 4:1: “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.” (NIV). I had called upon the Lord, my righteous God. I had begged Him for relief from the distress brought on by my class, and He had, indeed, been merciful to me. He had heart my prayer, and the comments of these Grade 4 teachers were proof…

God cares, friends. He is all-powerful, and when we trust in Him, just like David of old, our prayers can move mountains! I know, for my “mountains” – over 30 of them! – had indeed been “moved”!

What “mountains” do you have in your life that need to be “moved”? Follow David’s example. Call out to God. Trust Him to give you relief from your distress. Trust Him to be merciful to you and hear your prayer. When you do, you can be sure that He will come to you, and your “mountains” – no matter how many of them — will be moved!

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “The Sling for God” devotional series, please click here.)