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I have some trust issues when it comes to faith, actually a rather melancholy outlook that sometimes believes more in Murphy’s law than in God’s law. Cynicism, a lack of trust, a lack of faith. I really believe that sometimes my own negativity blocks God from answering my prayers.
One thing I am certain of, faith is a critical component of prayer. Abraham in the old testament is justified by faith. If you listen to Jesus over and over again He says, “your faith has healed you.” We have to pray and then trust our prayers have been heard and will be answered. We have to walk in those answered prayers as if they had already been granted. Faith.
First a caveat, God is not Santa Claus, the answer is not always going to be a cut and dry “yes,” but more often than not it really is. Sometimes it may be slightly different than you expected but prayers are absolutely answered. You have not because you ask not.
I’ve spent the past few years working on small things, just delighting in the Lord and taking note of everything I receive. It’s really amazing how all those tiny secret desires of my heart arrive right on schedule, wind up right in my path. Small things that I used to dismiss as coincidence, that often went unnoticed.
I’ve had a lot of negative words spoken over me like, “God doesn’t answer your prayers” or “God doesn’t care about you personally,” or my favorite, “you shouldn’t bother God with your petty stuff, He’s too busy for you.” All lies I assure you, but all lies I’ve had to peel off and unwrap.
God answers prayers, God cares about each of us personally, and He is never too busy. He’s a big, big, God. Also, a good Father who really wants to hear from us.
A while back I was stuck in the middle of nowhere one day, wishing desperately for a cup of coffee, not really “praying” but thinking, “Lord, I sure would like a cup of coffee.” The doorbell suddenly rang and there was a guy with a cup of coffee in his hand. He’d bought it for someone else, they weren’t home, and he didn’t want to waste it.
Did God bend the entire fabric of the universe just for me, synchronize events and people all so I could have a cup of coffee?
Perhaps. I’m not ashamed to say that either because He’s a good God who cares for sparrows, counts the very hairs on our head, and is faithful in the small things and the big. Yes, He loves us that much, more than we can even imagine.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Isn’t it cool how miracles happen in the most unusual ways? We often have to look for them though.
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Yes! Amen. We have to look for them. I really regret not taking note of all the little things that are outright miracles. We get busy in life sometimes, stop smelling the flowers, stop counting the small blessings. 🙂
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Have you considered the possibility that the man who brought you that coffee was really angel sent by God? The Bible does say that we sometimes entertain angels without realizing it. Perhaps angels sometime help us without our realizing it.
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It’s always possible! I try to keep Hebrews 13:2 in the back of my mind. When a stranger shows up bearing gifts, sometimes the best thing to do is just receive them and be hospitable.
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Good point Clyde. Either way, it’s like the Lord saying: I hear you, I know you, I love you.
When the UPS driver arrives with a package, its kinda hard to be ungrateful, for he does not have a bill in his hand, and its usually a good thing to be unwrapped.
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Sometimes, I think all God all day, which in a way shows faith, but then no prayer to him. That may show a lack of faith. I wish to have more faith than that. I will work on that. My life has bee full of miracles.
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Amen Jack! I’m so glad your life has been full of miracles. I think faith really comes when we just allow ourselves to delight in the Lord and to trust that He really loves us, more than we can even understand. That can be hard sometimes because there is a lot of grief and suffering in the world and we tend to place our eyes on the wrong things. At least that’s what I do, I forget to look up and just delight in the Lord. 🙂
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Indeed, kind of like having a pink beach cruiser arrive out off the blue at the perfect moment. 😉 As you say God is not Santa Claus and we should not expect nor want him to show his love for us entirely through material goods. When he does though, the gift is in Him actually loving and caring for us enough to do so, the actual item paling in comparison.
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a wonderful reflection that speaks directly to my heart today….as in God may be bending IB to speak to Cookie—as He is that BIG of a God and loving Father who does care that much for each single one of us…and when He can bless two in one—I call that a Heavenly twofer 🙂
words well spoken IB and words that remind me that all I need to do is to “walk in that prayer with Faith….” as I repeat the words of Julian of Norwich…”all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of things in my soul shall be well….”
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I pray about the little, the big, the goofy, the not goofy, the happy, the sad, the good stuff, and the bad. I just talk with my Father and do not give a rip about someone else’s opinion of how much prayer is too much or how little is too little.
The Lord has led me to lost keys, lost screws, and lost people. After all, if He found and floated an iron axe head for one, He certainly has no problem helping me locate my vehicle in the parking lot. If He healed the leper, He certainly has no problem healing my headache.
Never will I be ashamed to say that I talk to God about everything. I guess that is why I’m seeing more prayers answered then the “Religious Folk” who are still stuck on the “if it be Your will,” type prayers for every blooming prayer. If Jesus did it for the multitude, I know for certain that I can ask and believe it for me.
The problem is that we get all spiritual and theological instead of just approaching our Father with the simplicity of a small child. He is a good Father and knows how to give good things. He also knows how to tell us to rethink our prayers if they are off course.
Oh, and the other day I asked the Lord, “What can I do for You today, Lord? Ya got anything in particular you want me to pray about?” Immediately I heard, “Pray for the students of the colleges.”
“Yes sir, Lord…”
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Oh, a thousand amens! I love it.
If I ever start asking for too much, or talking too much, God will tell me. He always does. I’ve found Him to be amazing when the answer is going to be “no,” a Great Comforter. Heck, He has even made my disappointment exceedingly fun.
Once all is well with my soul, His will and my will often align. How do I know that? Well, it’s not really what I wanted but it’s right and it’s good, and sometimes even better than I imagined.
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@patrick
If you have not seen the original ‘fiddler on the roof,’ have a look see and note how Tevvye talks to God.
Around the kitchen table sort of thing. Love the regularness of such talk.
In the midst of his struggles, he says, ‘I know we’re chosen, but could you choose someone else for a day?’
He says with sarcasm to God about his having all daughters, and of course the ups and downs of tradition.
Highly recommended musical.
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I love this post, especially since it gives me the opportunity to share a testimony I experienced just this past Wednesday.
An older gentleman brought his IPad to bible study so his son and daughter-in-law could take a look at it. It had stopped working, the screen was grey.
They tried what they could, I looked at it, and said well, since you’ve tried everything and we’re here for bible study – why not just lay hands on it and pray. [Yeah, they looked at me weird and ignored me… so I quietly placed my hand on the screen and said something/prayer].
Other people, including a computer guy came in and they handed them the IPad; of course they could do nothing.
So within 3 mins, the daughter-in-law pressed the power button (which before yielded nothing) but now it restarted perfectly and the IPad was back.
She was startled and said…. wow! it just came back etc.
I turned around and said to her – you forgot I just prayed over it. Thank you Jesus.
I still don’t think they believed it was my prayer 🙂
But what you gonna do.
Give God thanks because you know His heart for people – right.
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Amen! God is good, indeed. Thanks for the testimony, I love those little things, those fun things that make you go, hmm, now isn’t that interesting? 🙂
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I learnt from Joseph Prince some years back –If it’s important to you, it’s important to God. And I can seriously say, it’s made a tremendous difference in how I view God and receive.
Like you, somethings I do not even pray for; I’ll be thinking about it and sometimes I have questions that I think about, and the answer or the provision He makes available to me without any pleadings or asking on my part.
He’s a good Father who delights in us. Someone once said, God has no grandchildren, we’re all His children 🙂
Have a blessed day!
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Well said. Joseph Prince has some good ideas. I like to pick on all the famous TV pastors and yet I don’t do that to the grace-grace guy. He just has some redeeming qualities and so it’s not really on my heart to do so.
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ahahha…
None of us has it 100%. I like to think that if we did, we’d have translated just like Enoch 🙂
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This Article should be included in every commentary about the “Lord’s Prayer” – “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name…” – Mt. 6:9-13.
This specific thought, “It’s really amazing how all those tiny secret desires of my heart arrive right on schedule, wind up right in my path. Small things that I used to dismiss as coincidence…” brought this to mind:
Norman Vincent Peale (Donald Trump’s childhood pastor) once said this about coincidence when asked if he really believed that God answers prayer. “In my experience, when I pray, coincidentally, favorable circumstances result more frequently”.
I like the meme too – where do you always find such appropriate ones?
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The Lord’s prayer! I really like that connection.
So, in order to say “thy will be done,” we have to have some understanding of what His will and His nature is. His will is good, His desire for us, kind and benevolent. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
Not that there isn’t going to be suffering in the world, but God is good, He’ll see to it you have a cup of coffee…or perhaps singing in prison while chained to a wall, like Paul was.
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Add THAT to the commentary, along with this’ insight’. When it comes to coffee, God prefers ‘mountain grown’ – preferably from the slopes of Sinai.
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Amen, IB. And recording and sharing the little things God does is so important. We often make public prayer request but then don’t talk about the answers. About five years ago we, as a church, started to share testimonies of God’s goodness every Sunday. What has amazed us is how often God actually answers our prayers (although it shouldn’t!)
The public testimonies encourage faith for everyone. On the other hand, when we don’t acknowledge God’s goodness, we tend to lose faith and forget God’s goodness. As it says over and over in the Old Testament, Israel went into bondage because they forgot the testimonies of God’s faithfulness.
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Ha! Sometimes I think our biggest problem as people is simply forgetfulness. Memory loss. Oops, forgot God loved me again!
That’s why we have to keep refreshing ourselves,bringing it all front and center in our minds so it doesn’t get lost in all the clutter 🙂
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“Big things” like someone’s salvation, defeat of ISIS, water availability in a third world country, the breaking of addictions – all that kind of thing, we know God cares about but he sometimes has lots of “men” standing in his way and it takes a long time to do some things. I think he delights in giving us some “gift” to show us he still answers prayer. He must love giving a “cup of coffee” when you want it. It has no stubborn will of its own. And if one is open to acknowledging his gift with thankfulness, these amazing “coincidents” do seem to happen fairly often.
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Amen! I really like what you said about the big things. There are men standing in the way sometimes and big things can be complex, involving lots of factors we can’t see.
I think God really does delight in giving us those little things He is free to just give us. 🙂
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I think if we are grateful we will continue to find more instances of synchronicity in our lives. There are blessings everywhere, sometimes it is that our eyes are too shut to see them x
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Amen! Gratitude really helps to give us the eyes to see. 🙂
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