Yes. The Lord Hears prayer. The year that went by will go down as my most significant and favorite year for a long time to come. The Lord led me on a wonderful journey, one that is still underway, and as much as I like to keep things private, I’d like to share some bits. I do this to testify of God’s goodness and faithfulness and I hope it encourages you.
As a little girl, I had vowed to never marry and remained rather headstrong about it for years. I intentionally prayed about being single, asking the Lord to call me out to serve him more and to show me if singleness was indeed his plan for me.
I told him that if he wanted me to be married, then it would have to be to someone serving him full-time. That’s the most specific prayer I’ve ever prayed, I think.
Hardly three months after that, I was introduced to someone at church. I didn’t think God would begin to work so quickly and it was overwhelming at first, but after a while, he answered another prayer: to calm my fears if this was his will.
To cut the long story short, a little over a month ago, I walked down the aisle and said my vows in front of a packed congregation.
The Lord did provide someone who was in full-time ministry but to say just that would be unfair; He blessed me with someone who seeks to know the Lord more than anything else.
His love for God and his commitment to serve him is what drives him to do everything he does, including loving me like Christ loves the church.
The months that were spent in getting to know each other were special times. During this journey, I continued to pray for my desire to serve in ministry and in time God answered that as well in ways that I could not have imagined.
I had been wanting to enroll myself in a theological course over the past few years but since they were quite expensive, I put it off. Then a few months ago, God miraculously led a couple to support my desire, and he also confirmed my call to ministry.
Overall, there are many lessons that I've learned in the past year and I hope to pen some of them down eventually, but the highlight is this: The Lord hears.
As I write this, I am reminding myself of the same. Sometimes we don’t give due importance to prayer; I know I struggle with this on and off.
There are days when I have prayed well and other days when I have rushed through the act. What I don’t always realize is that when I pray I am talking to the Creator of the universe and he is listening.
The Psalmist says, “Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” What an attitude!
The last year showed me how important it is to align our hearts with God’s in prayer so that we can discern and know his will, and do it.
It is important that we pray more and pray specifically, and that we do so in faith. Ravi Zacharias says, “Only if you are willing to pray sincerely for God’s will to be done and are willing to live the life apportioned to you will you see the breathtaking view of God that he wants you to have, through the windows he has placed in your life.”
Of course, sometimes we don’t receive answers quickly and have to wait for long, maybe even years, but that shouldn’t stop us from praying; we are still communicating with God and he is still listening.
How encouraging it is to know this! Besides, when we pray, it changes us; our circumstances may or may not change, but God is definitely working on us.
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." – 1 John 5:14, 15
By Christina Martin,
Blessings,
Mind On Jesus