Answered and Unanswered Prayers

Have you ever been in a situation where you were keenly aware that God was way ahead of your situation and had provision ready when you needed it?

My wife and I just had such a situation. We recently moved, which is another whole story in itself. (Whoever invented moving needs to be hung or shot or something!)

We had lived in a home outside Nashville on a five-acre wooded hill. It was a great sanctuary and we loved residing there. One of the interesting things about that home was the fact that it had a 350 ft. driveway that went uphill, made a hairpin turn and landed at the home itself. As a result, it wasn’t possible to see most of the driveway from the house.

The last day of living there, we had the last truckload packed and were headed down the hill when we noticed something at the bottom of the driveway. I mentioned that it was a wooded area and we had often said that someday we were going to come home and there’d be a tree across the driveway. Well, those words came true on our last exit from that property. At the bottom of the driveway was a tree big around enough that we couldn’t budge it and we were trapped on the driveway!

We had also rented some storage boxes from U-Haul which were placed on our property to load at our convenience. U-Haul delivered them via a flatbed truck, and a forklift drove them up the driveway and placed them where we had easy access to load them. As the Lord would have it, the person coming to retrieve them and take them to our new residence was due at our house in ten minutes. They had already called and told me they were on the way and gave me an approximate time of arrival.

So, when they arrived ten minutes later and saw our dilemma, they simply off loaded the forklift, drove to the fallen tree, picked it up and moved it out of the way, clearing the driveway for us to leave and for them to have access to the storage boxes.

Don’t tell me God is not aware of every need we have and has already provided for it!

I’m reminded of how just a year ago, our lead singer, Michael Helwig, due to the increasing effects of ALS, needed a motorized wheelchair to help him get around. He found a company that manufactured what he needed and ordered the chair. When it was delivered and there was no bill, Mike called the owner to find out how much he owed for the chair. The owner shared with Mike the story that his family had been a bunch of heathens but years ago his mother had given her heart to Christ in a Blackwood Brothers concert. As a result, their whole family had come to know Christ and been gloriously saved! The gentleman then told Mike there would be no charge for the chair!

Don’t tell me God is not aware of every need we have and has already provided for it!

What’s your need today? Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. You might think that God treats people like us differently because we’re in ministry. That’s not a biblical concept. The Bible says that He is no respecter of persons.

Sometimes we think we need something we really don’t need. Sometimes we think that God doesn’t care about us or our needs. Sometimes we’ve been conditioned to believe that God doesn’t provide or is too busy with important things or important people.

Let me burst those false beliefs for you. Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him?” You were so important to God that He sacrificed His Son on a cross for you. Paul says, in Romans 8:32, “He Who did not spare His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

I’m not saying we get everything we ask for, because sometimes we think we need things we don’t really need. In the words of that great theologian, Garth Brooks,

“Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Listen, friend; we serve a great God Who loves us with an unquenchable, inexhaustible, unfathomable love! There’s nothing we need that He can’t provide!

Our part is to ask, and then to trust. And to thank Him for the answered and the unanswered prayers.