Does God hear our prayer?
I was frustrated with Larry’s idea of God’s provision when we were newlyweds. He believed that God could provide through unexpected checks in the mail and prayed accordingly. I was more like, “It’s time to take on a second job,” not sit around and pray. God would provide, certainly, via my hard work. Six years of marriage have shown me that God really does provide in unexpected ways. Recently, I have noticed a Chapel Hill trend of God radically answering prayer.
This week we had the most prayer requests for thanksgiving and praise on blue cards that I have seen as your pastor. They are still outnumbered by the pleading cries of pain, and yet they fill me with hope for how God might provide. Alcoholism curbed. “Hep C has been defeated.” Help on the garden. Successful surgery. Chronic pain relieved. Homes sold and homes made available. Cases won. Friends who left the Boston marathon early or chose not to go. Even this praise, “The family problem has resolved itself and everyone is happy and content!” Would that that was true for all of us! On the women’s retreat, God even answered our simple prayer. We asked Saturday night that he would give us either the steady rain that reminds us of his faithfulness (Hosea 6:3) or that he might give us the chance to see the mountain one more time despite nonstop predictions of rain. And so what did God give? Both. We had communion outside in a pavilion with steady rain and a view of the mountains.
Such testimonies give us confidence to keep asking and trusting God even as we continue to admit pain, fear, and doubt corporately and individually. We know and see that Jesus who conquered death and rose from the grave can most assuredly work naturally and supernaturally in our lives. As we approach our doubts this Sunday, we continue to hear the testimony of the Scriptures and our church family who tell us how God has moved before.
That’s our theme for Sunday’s time of Jubilee prayer. We want to remember how God has been faithful. Would you come this Sunday at 5:00pm and share testimony with your church family? Would you be willing to bolster our faith? Or perhaps come to hear once again the stories of God’s style of provision. God has provided for us, and I am thankful that Larry gave me hope of that early in our marriage. And I am glad that you continue to remind me of that every day.
Press on to know God. He loves you so.
Pastor Megan
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. – Hosea 6:3