Skip to main content

Answered Prayers

Sometimes it is easy to see when God answers prayer.  It is immediate and pretty much just about to smack you in the face.  Other times, you forget that you asked, or you just forget that He answers prayers.  Or He is working through you or through a situation to answer prayers.  Sometimes it is easy to chalk it up to your own efforts or just to say a great thing happened.  Sometimes God answers our prayers, but not answering them at all…. (deep right?)

Our prayers count, our life counts, the prayers of our parents, friends, relatives, they all count.  Things change due to prayer. 


Luke 11:1-13
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: "'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'" Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"



When my sisters and I were younger we begged and begged for a snake.  My mom, now wanting a snake in her house, got us an iguana instead.  The Iguana had to eat ever day (as opposed to once a week), pooped every day (again not once a week) and was an escape artist!  He could get out of anything that we put him in getting out of our house sometimes.  The iguana wasn’t more dangerous than the snake, but it did create more work for my parents and make our upstairs smell bad- it also gave us a good sense of responsibility and we loved that silly escaping artist.  We got a reptile because we were bold and continued to ask. 
It wasn’t exactly what we asked for, but it made us very happy.  Sometimes God just knows what is best.  He knows that maybe we can’t handle the “snake”.  There are lot of responsibilities with a snake like feed it live prey or if it got out, it could hurt us.  God knows what we can handle because he is our Father.  He knows what we can and when we can handle specific responsibilities. 


“Ask and it will be give to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Thank God that He knows what you can handle!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Center of God's Will

I was very blessed to go over to some new friend’s home last night and talk with them and others about life in general.   As the topic turned solely to missions late in the evening (as this couple used to travel around bringing the good news to kids around the world, and then lived in a different country for 3 years sharing the gospel) I said something like, it must feel amazing to be right in the center of God’s Will.   To have to rely on Him for protection from the most random events; to have to rely on God to take you out of situations that are dangerous; to rely on Him for every provision that you are given; and most importantly, to be brining the message of Christ to all nations under heaven.   Can you imagine?   Knowing that you are supposed to be right where you are, doing what you are doing, right when you are doing it because you have to, and have chosen to, rely on God for every little aspect of your life.   Well friends, I am not out spreading the me...

Don't throw fits!

Yesterday I blogged about how we need to be like little children.   Jesus loves the little children.   He tells us that if we are not like them, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.   I HAVE little children and they are amazing, but I have to assume that little children back in the day didn’t throw public fits or kick and scream and want their way.   Proof is actually in the Bible – they didn’t have the media helping their kids learn to curse their parents all the time.   The punishment for going against your father and mother were harsh!   See Leviticus 20:9 “If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.   He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.” God wants us to be like the little children that he writes about in the Bible, not necessarily the kids that we see all the time around us now.   Some are very well behaved, but some just aren’t.   I can only assume that He wants us to foll...

do I mis-use the Bible?

WOW!   This morning I sat and started to read through Ecclesiastes.   I don’t know if the author of Ecclesiastes, Perhaps King Solomon, had a very sarcastic view on life or if he was just babbling.   But I can definitely see how this book could get a lot of people into trouble if they don’t know the full book or continue to read.   There are verses in there that say things like; eat, drink and enjoy the days on earth because they are meaningless, it is good to enjoy your time on earth and do not worry about anything. To get the full meaning of the book, you need to read it all- the true gems are the last two verses.   This book was written by someone (according to my study Bible) that was near the end of his life, he sees man in pursuit of so many things and vainly pursuing hopes and expectations- but faith teaches him that God has ordered all things according to his own purposes and that we need to accept our limitations.   The last two verses are the wr...