30day Put God First Test 2012: Day 3 – “Faithful answers to prayer"


I am still slammed at work with a lot of email and unfinished projects and frankly yesterday afternoon was difficult and I didn’t handle the pressure well.  Yesterday became a testing of my faith and the pressure revealed some pride in me. (I could tell you what happened but I am too proud to do it)  I trust the Lord that things are happening in me, through me, and for me because I am seeking the Lord and putting him first.  This morning as I prayed and spent time with God I didn’t beg him to help me out of the hole I am in at work- instead He enabled me to pray with understanding and thanks that He will do it because he says He will in several spots in His Word.  I trust the Lord first – and the answers and His help will follow – I believe and know its already on the way.  I believe that prayer is answered instantly and we just have to trust Him about it.  The Lord develops our answers to prayer and we can’t micromanage the answers.  We need to pray and rest in Him.

I am praying right now for some friends and family members as well and I have seen some neat short-term work in their lives and hearts through my prayers as well.  When we pray for others we have to trust God that He is faithful and at work- but we also should have the eyes of our hearts open to see sometimes subtle outward signs that the Lord is at work.  When we pray we need to “watch and pray” – the Lord will show us some signals that He is answering our prayers so we need to pay attention for those signals and signs.  This general topic of keeping an eye on what God is doing in us, through us, and in response to our prayers is something I call having “eyes for answers”, meaning having such confidence in God that He IS actively answering our prayers that we literally look for the evidence.  We trust Him whether we can see evidence or not – but by looking with this trust and confidence in Him that He is answering our prayers He will quite often let us see Him at work.  We need to change our language and mindset about “coincidences”.  When we say something is a “coincidence” it closes our eyes to what God is doing for us.  If we’re praying for a topic and it is resolved, even in a seemingly natural way, but it works something out we were asking for in prayer– we need to have “eyes for answers” and see that He answered our prayer.

God is not going to always send an angel with a flaming sword to answer your prayers- he uses time, people, circumstances, and oftentimes very normal looking means to answer prayer.  The eyes of faith look with understanding concluding, “Oh, I prayed for this person or situation and it worked out…. God answered my prayer”.

Watch and pray- He answers ALL prayer.

Let’s go God!

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