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In the book of Zechariah Chapter 10 starting with verse 1 it says using the Oxford Annotated version of the Bible, “ Ask rain from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the fields to everybody.” One of the questions in prayer is what to focus on and how to focus in prayer. The Holy Spirit will help us to steer our prayers in certain directions and aid us in our prayer requests. This verse from the book of Zechariah shows that we can go wide in our prayer requests, yet at the same not lose focus on ourselves and what we need. The rain requested in these verses will help you the one who is making the request or the one saying the prayer and also everybody who is within the fields that are being watered and subject to the effects of this watering. The consequences of the prayer's effect might be felt widely. The prayer in a sense can be scattered abroad, helping others yet still can involve something that is given to you at the same time.While the storm may involve valley after valley, mountaintop after mountaintop,the answer if rain still finds you, the original requester. There is the matter of focusing on intercessions, there are other fields to tend in prayer rather than what is most up front and personal. The Lord is giving with a vision towards the one who is asking and also a vision towards everybody else who may benefit from the answer, and towards other possible fields out there to be tended in the manner of prayer and intercessions. There is no reason to close in our prayer request to make absolute certainty that it will come directly our way, the one who is asking in these verses is identified as individually receiving the rain. In the gospel of John using the Oxford Annotated Bible, Chapter 11 verse 28 says,” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “ The teacher is here and is calling for you.” It is amazing that an answered prayer that even in a sense is widely disseminated would still be for you. In the verse from Zechariah, there is also the call on the one person to ask. The asking, the call to the asking may and does fall on an individual. Within the context of the call to being the one to ask, there can be a wider call to helping everybody. Yet the sight of the Lord and the sight of his answer doesn’t leave you. The storm clouds have the characteristic of hiding, of overwhelming and making everybody lay back a bit and take shelter somewhere. Even the giant storm, which is part of the answer in this case, does not obscure that view of you. You are seen before and after. Another aspect of this is praying ahead, obviously this request is for the near future maybe the same days or the upcoming days. This is an example of how you can in various ways ask the Lord to go ahead of you in time and place and prepare an answer for you. An example of this might be the upcoming inauguration of the new President of the United States where millions of people could be gathered outdoors for the affair in potentially extremely cold weather. Yet someone could pray for this day and the weather conditions right now, weeks before, and this would be an example of praying ahead. If the wanted weather occurs, the person who asked for it will be happy for themselves yet this weather will also affect everyone else there. And finally, a lot of people feel they lose focus in just about everything with seeming chaos out there. But these verses show that God sees you the one who is asking all the way through the answer, even if the answer involves something gigantic like a gigantic storm and even if you feel that you have lost focus. The call is rather direct, and the answer is rather direct, even if it comes in the chaos of the storm and in gigantic form that would seem to obscure individuals. God does not lose sight of the request and the accompanying answer which goes at times to everybody but still comes right back to you.
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