When God Answers Prayer

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a short mission trip.  We only had one day to spend with the kids which our team has been ministering too for several years now.  We had spent months beforehand praying for these kids and for our time there.  We were all sad that it would have to be so short, but knew that God could work even in times like these.

I learned many lessons during that trip, as I watched God working in ways so beyond my imagination.  Yes, we only had 12 hours, but we saw in that small moment of time just how much God was doing.

As I reflect upon my weekend, I am so wowed by the way that God answered each and every one of our prayers.  I am so humbled to think that God is working through us in ways we never thought possible.  I am so excited to know what God has done in the hearts of these kiddos and I look forward with child-like expectation to see what my heavenly Father will do next.

One of the things that sticks out to me from this trip as one of the (many) lessons God wanted to teach me is how He answers prayer.

I learned that sometimes He answers in a way different then we thought.

Our thoughts are so below His.  While we think and dream and plan, we must realize that God knows infinitely more than we do. And He's been around for a lot longer than we have.  Because of this, sometimes His plans to measure up to ours.  On the surface, it may seem like He didn't even answer our prayer.

But when we really take a look at what He has done, we see that He really has answered our prayer.  And when we remember Who He is and how amazing His plans have turned out in the past, we trust that He knows what is best.  Just think of all the stories in the Old Testament. I'm sure crossing the Red Sea wasn't Moses' idea of fleeing Egypt.  But it was in God's plan.  And looking back so many yeas later, we see that God knew best.

And He knows best today as well.  He may not answer our prayers in exactly the way we were hoping they would be answered, but His ways are infinitely better than ours.

Another thing I learned is that sometimes His answers seem ordinary.

When I first reflected on how well our trip went, sitting on the couch of our room at 10:30 that night, I thought it was a pretty ordinary day.  Or maybe simple is the word I am looking for.  No fire fell from heaven.  No one's life was drastically changed.  But then I started thinking about all the "little" things God had done.  And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how many things God had done!  Some of them were little, and some of them were big!  

For example, during that trip we didn't encounter a whole lot of spiritual attack from the enemy.  So at the end of the day, I thought, this was pretty easy after all!  But the fact that we didn't have to spend all our time waging war with the devil showed me that God was on our side fighting for us!  He had defeated the enemy so that we could work freely and unhindered.  What an amazing God we serve!

So a trip that seemed to be ordinary changed into extraordinary because of what God did.  From this I have learned to look for God in the little things and not to take the seemingly small things for granted. 

I have also been reminded not to just offer a little "Thank You, God" and then move on, but to really ponder what God has done.  We can take so much that the Lord has done for granted instead of giving Him the credit and glory for what He has done.

The Lord also taught me to avoid the temptation of thinking I did it all in my own strength.

Sometimes it's easy for me to fall into believing I could have done it without God--especially when His answers come in ordinary and peaceful ways--like He did with this past missions trip.

In the past, I have fallen into the trap of thinking, "Hey, I could have done that. It wasn't as hard as I thought."  We spend hours and hours in prayer and fail to trust in Him even when He promises to be with us. And then, when He is with us, we believe that we did it all on our own strength... :(  Oh, how sad!

Let us remember, dear friends, how much we cannot do it on our own strength and need Him.

Finally, when God answers prayer, remember to praise!

It's so easy for us to forget to spend set-apart, devoted time to praising Him.  I think of all the many hours that we invested in prayer for this missions trip.  And God answered each and every one of those prayers!  Would we be so unthankful as to not spend at least a fraction of amount of the time spent had in prayer in praising Him?  

We pray so hard for an answer, and then, when it comes, we seem to simply shrug it off. Let us resolve to thank our merciful Savior for the many ways He has answered our prayers. Let us acknowledge His answers for what they are--complete miracles! Undeserved grace and mercy. Bountiful blessings.  Let us praise Him!

If God answers your prayers, do not say a simple "Thank You," and move on to the next request that needs answering. Spend time in praising Him through song and prayer.  Remember how good He is and how gracious He has been to answer the cries of your heart.

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I hope this all didn't sound confusing or disorganized.  These are the thoughts of my heart and I really wanted to share them with you.  I pray that you too would be, as I have been, reminded and challenged to praise the Lord when He answers your prayers and not take credit for yourself, even if it seems ordinary or is different from what you had planned.  God is so good and He does answer prayer!