You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings . . . You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?”
I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her (Malachi 2:13-14 bold mine).”
If you want God to hear your prayers, keep your marriage vows.
My favorite bookmark went missing. I prayed and looked everywhere but did not find it.
A week later I misplaced my phone. I prayed, and found the bookmark and my phone in the very first place I looked.
Always pray. Do not give up (from Luke 18:1). You never know when God will answer your prayer.
It’s no surprise that he wanted to be with Jesus. This once-tormented man was now perfectly sane because Jesus had commanded the evil spirits to leave him.
Even though he begged, Jesus said, “No, go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you (Mark 5:19).”
Sometimes Jesus says yes. Sometimes he says, “No, go and tell. . . .”
Imagine the three of them, Jesus, Jairus, and the woman, standing together.
Jairus had asked Jesus to heal his daughter, but the woman’s faith had interrupted their conversation. She touched Jesus and was healed. Jesus was saying, “Your faith has made you well,” when messengers told Jairus his daughter had died.
Jesus looked at Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”
Like the woman, Jairus believed. Like the woman, Jairus saw a miracle (Read the story in Mark 5:21-43).
Talk about God’s answers to your prayers.
A: To pray.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
As I watched the storm, I asked God to let me take a picture of lightning.
The Lord causes clouds to rise over the earth. He sends lightning with the rain (Jeremiah 51:16). And He answers prayers.
To God alone be the glory!
Observe how the lilies of the field grow . . . not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these . . . So do not worry (Matthew 6:28-34).
So do not worry. Pray.
“As they stoned him, Steven prayed . . . ‘Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!’ and with that he died. Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen (Acts 7:59-8:1).”
Soon after Stephen’s death, Saul, renamed Paul, believed and preached that through Jesus “there is forgiveness for your sins (Acts 13:39).”
The Lord answered Stephen’s last prayer.
Habakkuk foresaw impending doom. So he prayed. “How long, O Lord, must I call for help? . . . Why must I watch all this misery?”
The Lord’s reply gives us courage and hope as we live through these dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said, “I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it (from Habakkuk 1:2-5).”
Friends gave us a book. Twenty-one years ago. I just started reading it.
Perhaps a gift you’ve given is sitting on a shelf. Perhaps your prayers are yet unanswered.
“And Patience was willing to wait.”*
*L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, p.339.
