Art class was over. She asked me if she could stay to finish making a friendship bracelet. I said no until I realized why she was asking. It was her friend’s birthday and she wanted to give the bracelet to her as a gift.
It gave me joy to let her stay.
I think God gets joy when we ask for things to give to our friends.
God had given us four. Rachel, Jonathan, Sarah, and Jacob were and are so very loved, so very wanted, so very wonderful.
We asked for just one more.
That was 27 years ago and we’re still thanking God for giving so much more than what we asked. To Him be the glory (Ephesians 3:21)!
P.S. Happy Birthday, Anneliese!
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. . . .”
“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.
Long ago we caught a monarch caterpillar and watched it become a chrysalis and then a butterfly. Our youngest daughter had been too small to understand, so for years we looked and prayed that we would find one. We never did.
Then, late one summer, we noticed a monarch chrysalis on our front porch. The day we left for vacation my youngest daughter watched it emerge.
Now, every time I see a monarch butterfly I remember God’s kindness.
Someone I know well does this: “I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words” (Psalm 119:147).
I’ve seen the outcome of his pre-dawn prayers. Month after month the Lord blesses the ministry he leads.
I pray specific Scripture for missionaries we know. Recently one told me “I want to do what I do because of love.”
For five years I have been praying this: “Let their service be motivated by love. Help them to obey your command to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all you mind and love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
God answers prayer.
Our daughter-in-law was in the Middle East when she texted, “Please pray. I am sick. I keep throwing up and have no energy. Our plane leaves in 7 hours.” I was with my 4 year old granddaughter Emma that day, so we prayed together that the Lord would heal her.
When Aunt Kathy arrived home, I asked, “Are you well?”
She responded, “Yes, I am!”
As Emma grows, I will remind her often how God answered our prayers!
The best man in our wedding told my husband, “If you love your wife, you do the dishes.”
Last night, he was once again doing dishes when the sink filled with water. He tried this, that, and the other thing to get it to drain. Nothing worked.
When it was finally unclogged, I asked, “What did you do?”
He answered, “I prayed.”
I’m a teacher. I’m always asking God to help me reach and teach my students.
Last week I prayed a very specific prayer. I asked Him to send someone to tell me if there was a better way for me to set up the small resource room I teach in.
That very morning, during my prep period, a teacher who I rarely see popped her head in and said, “I really like this new room set up. It eliminates distraction.”
That’s all she said.
God. Hears. Our. Prayers.
A Blog on Prayer 