Nothing Happens by Chance

A delayed flight, an emergency landing, and a storm so bad a seasoned doctor can’t even see the road ahead. Most of us would call that a terrible day. We call it a clue. If you’ve been praying for something that feels impossible, this short daily devotional is built to meet you right there, with clear hope and a story you won’t forget.

We start by slowing down and asking a direct question: what have we been praying about the last time we prayed? The needs are real, from relationships and finances to work stress and family pressure. Then we anchor to Scripture that steadies anxious hearts, including Ephesians on God working things out according to his plan and Psalm 33 on the Lord’s purposes standing firm through every generation. The point isn’t that life stays calm, it’s that God isn’t caught off guard.

From there we tell the true account of Dr. Abul Ahmed, a respected cancer specialist traveling to Chicago in the year 2000. A chain of setbacks forces him into a rental car, off course, and eventually to a small house on a deserted road. Inside, a woman offers simple kindness and keeps praying beside a crib. What she asks God for will stop him cold, and it reframes every “wrong turn” as a kind of providence. It’s a powerful reminder that prayer works, miracles still happen, and faith can outlast fear.

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Five-Minute Start

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. Good morning, everybody.

Naming The Needs Behind Your Prayers

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Welcome to Wednesday. I want you to stop just for a moment and think about the things that you were praying about, you were asking God for the last time you prayed. I know that we all have needs. We're all needing God to work in some way to bring about answers that we struggle to find. Sometimes we need clarity, sometimes it's for relationships, sometimes it's for finances, sometimes it's for dealing with people and at work and with kids and neighbors and all those kinds of things. Well, today I want to talk to those of you who are at the place where you are needing a miracle. You need God to do something that you believe is completely impossible without Him. And our God is more than able to answer those prayers.

God’s Plan Stands Firm

SPEAKER_00 1:05

In the book of Ephesians, we have a powerful promise that says, Because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. Over in Psalm 33 and 11, it says, The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. There's no disaster, no problem that ever occurs that surprises God. He is aware of it all. And in the midst of all of the challenges, all of the major problems that we face, God is still there with us, and he knows ahead of time how to work out the answers for us. I'm

A Stormy Detour Becomes A Miracle

SPEAKER_00 1:49

going to share with you a wonderful, powerful, true story this morning about how God worked a miracle through a doctor, a man named Doctor Abul Ahmed, who at the time wasn't even a Christian. This story takes place back in the year 2000. Cell phones and GPS were available, but really not all that common. You need to remember that as we go through it. Dr. Ahmed was a very well known cancer specialist, and he was invited to a conference to be the keynote speaker and to receive a very prestigious award in the field of medical research. This conference was to take place in Chicago. He was very excited to attend this conference, and he wanted to get there with the least amount of hassle. So he gets to the airport, he gets on his plane that was headed across the country to Chicago, when within just a couple of hours the plane had to make an emergency landing due to a technical problem. The doctor was afraid that he was going to miss the conference, so he immediately went to the ticket desk and asked for the next flight, but he was told that the next flight to Chicago wasn't going to leave for ten hours. The ticket agent recommended that he go to the rental car desk and see if he could get a car to drive himself to the conference, which was about a four hour drive away from where he was. Realizing that he didn't have much of a choice at all, doctor Ahmed rented the car, despite the fact that he hated driving long distances. And wouldn't you know it, a half an hour after he left the airport in his car, a horrendous storm began. The rain was pounding down in sheets, and it made it very difficult to see through the windshield. It was so heavy that he missed his turn off and continued driving for another two hours, finally taking an exit to try and figure out where he was. The only thing he knew for sure at this point is that he was lost. And here he was on this what looked like a deserted road, and he knew he needed to get to a telephone or have someone help him find how to get back to where he needed to go. He continued driving down this road when he came across a small, somewhat tattered house. Feeling very anxious and desperate, he got out of the car and knocked on the door, and a lady opened it. He explained what had happened and asked her if he might use her telephone. The lady told him that the storm had taken out the telephone lines and hers wasn't working, but she told the doctor he could come inside till the weather improved. Feeling completely exhausted and hungry and now somewhat hopeless, he accepted her kind invitation and walked in. The lady gave him hot tea and some bread. She then asked him if he would join her in her prayers. Dr. Ahmed smiled and said that he believes in hard work only, but told her to continue with her prayers. He sat sitting at the table, sipping the tea, and watching the woman in the dim light of the candles as she was praying for someone in a small crib next to her. Every time she finished a prayer, she started again with another prayer. Realizing that the woman could be in real need of something, as the woman finished one of her prayers, he asked her, What exactly do you want from God? And will God ever listen to your prayers? The lady gave a sad smile and said that the child in the crib was her son who is suffering from a rare type of cancer, and there was only one doctor, a doctor Ahmed who could cure him, but she doesn't have the money to afford his fee, and doctor Ahmed lives in another town a long way away. She mentioned that God has not answered her prayer so far, but said that God is going to make some way out one day, and then she added she will not allow her fears to overcome her faith. Stunned and speechless, doctor Ahmed was in tears, recalling the sequence of events that happened on his journey that day. First there was some malfunction in the airplane, and then there was the thunderstorm, and then he lost his directions, and all of this obviously happened in a preplanned sequence because God did not just answer her prayer, but also gave him a chance to come out of the materialistic world and to offer some true help to the needy, poor people who have nothing but their prayers.

Keep Praying And Don’t Give Up

SPEAKER_00 6:01

I hope you'll forgive me for going a little bit long today, but I want to remind you that prayer works, and we serve a God who is still doing miracles. Never give up, never doubt, keep praying, keep believing. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right with Danny Mac.