Sundays on Wild Olive are a point of prayer. Please pause, leave a prayer request, and pray with us.
I'm posting this a little early, because tomorrow (Sunday) I'll be teaching the kids in my Sunday school class about how God answers prayer. I'd love to share with them any of your requests that would be appropriate for them, as well as any examples you might have for answered prayers!
My husband and I had a great experience with this recently. We were down to our last few dollars and had to decide between paying our tithing (church offering) or buying groceries. The Lord has promised us blessings if we faithfully pay our tithing. We said a prayer, and I felt a peace that everything would work out. We used the last of our money to pay the tithing.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday, we received a rather late wedding card from a distant relative. Inside was a check for the exact amount we had paid in tithing the previous day. It was a great testimony of both tithing and that the Lord answers our prayers when we have faith.
One thing someone told me when I was younger that really stuck with me is that sometimes God answers "no", and sometimes he answers in ways that seem like a no to you...basically, the fact that a prayer SEEMS unanswered is never evidence that God didn't hear you; it's a conversation, not a shopping list!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that really helped me sorta make sense of the world more. It can be hard to understand why bad stuff happens, especially if you specifically prayed for it to not happen or get better or whatever, and realizing that praying is a way to communicate with him, not a way to boss him around, can make it a little easier to not blame him. At least for me!
I always prayed for children. After my husband and I were married, I prayed that once we finished grad school and had good jobs, we would start our family. So basically I prayed God would let me have my heart's desire on my timeline.
ReplyDeleteBut God knew better. So when I was about halfway through an intense, one-year grad program, I discovered I was pregnant. I would never have chosen that timeline, but looking back I am so proud of myself for sticking with it and graduating on time. I can always look back and know that I was tough enough (with God's help) to succeed when the odds were stacked against me. Add to that the fact that I didn't get a job when I graduated (people don't want to hire enormously pregnant women for some reason...), and my husband lost his job the day before my daughter was born. It was hard to be faithful at times. But whenever I look at my now 11 year old daughter, I see the amazing blessing I was granted. If any bit of the timing had happened differently, I wouldn't have the same precious daughter. While I would love any child I was blessed with, I love *her* so very much that I can't imagine not having her just as she is (even if I did sometimes wish she liked a clean bedroom a bit more than she does).
And when expecting my second child, we got some distressing test results. I am a worrier by nature. I prayed fervently and passionately that God would grant us the health of our baby. I researched and cried and despaired. Everyone told me that everything would be fine and I shouldn't worry. Fat chance! But then God sent me a sign. My daycare provider assured me that she thought everything would be fine, *BUT* if we got bad news to let her know. She told me that she would take classes to be better prepared to provide care for a special needs baby. And she told me that she had considered adopting a child with the diagnoses that we were potentially facing. That meant the world to me. I feel that God put her there to tell me that no matter what the outcome, there were still blessings to be had. Finally someone didn't dismiss my fears, but met them head-on. I still worried about my baby, but without the panic that had marked my earlier prayers. God also used the situation to reveal to me another layer of my husband's heart. After further screening, the doctors said that things looked better but the only way to be certain was a amniocentesis. My husband and I talked, and he said that the amnio carried some risk, but no matter what it said we would still have the baby. So why take the risk? So many fears had crept in, and God answered my prayers in unexpected ways. While I begged for a definitive answer with a favorable outcome, God instead chose to show me that even if things didn't go the way I hoped it would be okay. My husband wouldn't decide to leave us, and someone would be happily willing to take care of my child so I could continue to work, which meant we could keep our house. I didn't even realize the depths of my fears until I felt His reassurance. In the end I was blessed with a beautiful, bright, healthy baby girl. But along the way I really learned that God would provide and care for me, no matter what.
Goodness, I do go on... But God has been so good! I am a woman richly blessed.
About 10 years ago, I had to have my gall bladder removed. I had just turned 16, it was summer, and all I really remember now is feeling disgustingly sick and painful while suffering through the summer heat.
ReplyDeleteTwo friends of mine put me on a prayer list the week before my gall bladder surgery. I didn't know this until the night before my surgery when I was presented with a card with promises of prayers and love dated from the past week.
That week, the one during which I was so heavily prayed for, was the most comfortable week I had had the whole summer. What's more, my doctor told me after the fact that I had multiple gall stones in my gall bladder, the largest be lodged in my bile duct. I should have been experiencing the most intense pain during that week, and instead I felt relatively fine.
That, to me, is physical proof that God exists and prayer works.
I've been taught that the prayer that *never fails* is "thy will be done." Your friend's comment above about prayer being a conversation, not a shopping list is a better (more kid-friendly) way to put this!
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