If you are a member of the prayer group that Stu started, then you already know that there is a praise report about Megan. She is a former student, a teacher and a young mother. Recently, she went in for her routine 36 week OB check up and suddenly went into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to a local hospital where she underwent a C-section on Saturday morning. Baby Caroline and Megan are both improving. And I am so in awe of God’s power and faithfulness to His people! The call for prayer went out online on Thursday and by Saturday, Megan was conscious and holding her new baby girl. All glory to Him!

Sometimes, though, God does not answer prayer in the way we expect. Disappointment, disillusionment and our own lack of faith kicks in. But I am drawn to the story of Job, a man who lost everything except his faith in God. Clinging to that faith, he dared to face his friends who mocked him, his wife who told him to curse God and die, and all of his physical and mental anguish. Job was more blessed at the end of his life than he had been before all of these trials attacked him. He had faith! And God is not a respecter of persons, so why are our prayers sometimes not answered? I return to a post that I wrote earlier. God does answer all of our prayers. We just have to be aware of His answer. Sometimes, He says “no.” Now, just like little children, we don’t like to hear the word “no” but that is what is best for us at times. God, who is omnipresent and omniscient, is the One who can best determine what is in our best interest, so if he says “no” to us, we have to believe that it’s going to be okay in the end. God can also answer our prayers with a “Wait.” I think this is the hardest for me to accept, because like the people in line at the McDonald’s, I want what I want to happen NOW. Again, we have to accept God’s knowledge of everything and that He is doing what is best for us. Finally, God might say “yes.” Since that is the answer we always want, we tend to be very thankful and praise God and His mighty works with a loud voice and testimony, telling everyone what God has done for us. What if we likewise thanked God for His “no” and “wait” answers? What if we were always in an attitude of being grateful for God’s faithfulness to us, regardless of our circumstances? Sometimes, I am not thankful, and I am acknowledging now that I should be.

I also tend to question God’s sovereignty over the earth, especially when I see so much evil. But we know that God is the final Judge and one day ALL will bow before Him. So, this is the Scripture that God showed me for my questioning heart.

Image from Flickr

Finally, we need to stay immersed in His Word so that we will not become discouraged or down-hearted. His Holy Word is given to us for a reason. It’s like the car manual that I get out every time a warning light comes on in my car so that I can look up how to get that light off. We have a warning light in our hearts and minds that lights up when we have not been spending enough time with God and in His Word. Warning! Warning! His Word is our manual for our lives. In it, we find the answers we seek, often before we even know what we should be asking.

The most important truth in His Word is that Jesus is the Son of God. In believing that marvelous truth, we can go forward in our lives, facing obstacles and trials and knowing that Jesus suffered as we do, but even more. We know that He has conquered death and the grave and that He will bring victory to all of His believers at the end of this age. So, we read God’s Word. We worship. We pray. Then, we wait for God’s answer and accept it, no matter what His answer may be. We need to praise Him because He is always faithful to us. Always! Blessings to each of you for a day filled with answered prayers (remember that all of our prayers are answered in some way), friendships and love.