PRAYER Part 4
How Does God Answer Prayers?
YES.
NO.
Wait, or I have something better.
YES!
When Peter was in prison and a “prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church.”
Acts 12:5-17 (HCSB)
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church.
6 On the night before Herod was to bring him out ⌊for execution⌋, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” Then the chains fell off his wrists. 8 “Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did so. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.” 9 So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what took place through the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.10 After they passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and immediately the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying. 13 He knocked at the door in the gateway, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer.14 She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gateway.
15 “You’re crazy!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. Then they said, “It’s his angel!” 16 Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.
17 Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Report these things to James and the brothers,” he said. Then he departed and went to a different place.
NO!
Isn’t “No” an Answer?
Amy Carmichael
Just a tiny little child Three years old,
And a mother with a heart All of gold.
Often did that mother say, Jesus hears us when we pray,
For He’s never far away And He always answers.
Now, that tiny little child Had brown eyes,
And she wanted blue instead Like blue skies.
For her mother’s eyes were blue Like forget-me-nots. She knew
All her mother said was true, Jesus always answered.
So, she prayed for two blue eyes, Said “Good night,”
Went to sleep in deep content And delight.
Woke up early, climbed a chair By a mirror. Where, O where
Could the blue eyes be? Not there; Jesus hadn’t answered.
Hadn’t answered her at all; Never more
Could she pray; her eyes were brown As before.
Did a little soft wind blow? Came a whisper soft and low,
“Jesus answered. He said, No; Isn’t No an answer?”
The above poem, written by Amy Carmichael, was based on an incident that actually did occur in her life when she was three. It turned out to be in the providence of God for her to have brown eyes.
She became a missionary to India in the late 1890s. At first her ministry was primarily evangelistic. But along the way she became aware that some parents in India sold their daughters to the temple, where they were used for immoral purposes.
God led one such child to her, and through a series of events and a sense of the Lord’s leading, Amy took the child in. Then more stories of other girls (and later, boys) surfaced and more opportunities to rescue and provide homes for these children arose.
Amy had to struggle with this, because the Lord had seemed to be blessing her evangelistic work. Was it right to turn from that ministry to give herself to housing and raising children? She concluded that that was indeed God’s will for her life.
The ministry grew exponentially and eventually became a whole compound, with housing for children of all ages, the workers who took care of them, and even their own hospital.
As Amy went “undercover” to find details of these children, she would stain her arms with coffee and wear Indian dress so that she could pass as an Indian woman and move freely in Indian society where she never could have as an Irish missionary.
This she could not have done with blue eyes — her eyes would have given her away immediately. Neither she nor her mother could have ever known, all those years ago, the Lord’s purpose for her brown eyes, but the lesson of faith stayed with her all her life.
Sometimes I have to thank God for what we call “Unanswered Prayers”
Wait, or I have something better.
When Jesus was in the garden, He Himself had to wait, As One preacher said, Jesus isn’t just there to pray at the Mount of Olives . . . He is there to wait. He knows what’s coming, He has been waiting for it, and He is ready to fulfill His promise. Over and over through the Gospels Jesus says my hour or time has not come. And then He said the time has come for the Son Of Man to be glorified.
John 17:1 (HCSB)
Jesus Praying for Himself
1 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said: Father, (every time Jesus prays, He says Father) the hour has come. Glorify (glory, honor, magnify)
Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, …
Even Jesus had to wait, and accept what he physically didn’t want, pain, for us!
We have to trust The God that knows tomorrow, He knows what is best for us.
Sometimes there’s a spiritual battle, likes we have never seen and the answer is delayed but right on time. As when Daniel “prayed for all of Israel because they have broken God’s law and turned away, and refusing to obey You. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him.” Daniel 9:11
And an angel shows up;
Daniel 10:12-14 (HCSB)
…12 “Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me after I had been left there with the kings of Persia. 14 Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the last days, for the vision refers to those days.” …
It took a while but God gave him a prophetic answer, and God says;
Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)
3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
“Answer you, and show” you will get an answer and He will SHOW you things, great and mighty things, not GIVE you things.
As long as God can get the Glory, He will Show and at times give us exactly what we need, and sometimes things we didn’t know we needed.
And sometimes there is an answer before we asked;
There is a story of a missionary family in the early 1900’s in Africa they had 2 small children. The second being born after they arrived on the mission field. The youngest was sickly and needed much care.
It had to be wrapped in blankets most of the time to ensure that it stayed warm enough. The mother was heard to say, over and over, “I wish we had a hot water bottle.” Her thinking was that with a hot water bottle, she could place it next to the child and provide it some heat. After a few weeks, a package arrived from England.
In that package were several items that were sent to the family anonymously to help them in their new location. Among the items, there was a hot water bottle. The mother thanked God, but couldn’t recall having prayed for it.
As the last of the items were taken out of the box, the oldest child came to her mother and said, “Where’s my new baby doll?” Her mother responded, “There isn’t a doll in here.” The little girl asked them to look again, and when they did, under all the packing material was a little, new baby doll.
The mother asked the girl how she knew there was a doll in there. She said, “Well, when I asked God to send a hot water bottle for the baby, I asked Him to send me a dolly.”
This story becomes even more remarkable when we stop to consider that this package had to travel to Africa first by ship, then by pack animals until it reached the family. It began its journey some 6 months before the baby had been born and before the little girl had ever begun to pray for those things!
What a God we serve!
And again, and it is well worth repeating,
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Pray without ceasing, Pray all the time.
In everything give thanks, Praise Him!
This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This is the WILL of God!!
