Prayers Are Always Answered

Our prayers may not always be answered with a loud roar of thunder and a sizzling lightening bolt that can be seen for miles. God may show up in that tiny little rain cloud sitting quietly in the sky waiting for our eyes of faith to look up and ignite it.

The prophet Elijah made this discovery thousands of years ago. With the country in a severe drought and the evil non-believing King Ahab attempting to turn the people away from God, Elijah's faith was strong. He prayed and prayed and continued to pray for rain. Elijah sent a servant to the top of Mount Carmel to look for rain. The servant returned six times with the weather report: clear skies, no rain in sight. Elijah continued to pray and sent the servant to the mountain for the seventh time. When the servant returned, he reported one very small cloud no bigger than a man's hand. Elijah, whose faith had not wavered, knew his answer was in that tiny cloud. Elijah issued an instruction to the servant to tell King Ahab to get off the mountain before the downpour - all because God had revealed Elijah's answer in that tiny cloud. The drought was over!

How does that apply to us in today's world? I can share a personal experience that happened recently. I had started a project on the Internet and several months had passed without a single spark of interest. I prayed for discernment and direction - should I abandon the project and stop spending time and energy on the project? Within the following week, I received several positive unsolicited expressions of interest. After almost a year of absolutely no activity, I had several tiny little rain clouds; certainly not a downpour, but the message was clear. I needed to persevere, stay patient and prayerful and stand strong in faith. I was reminded that God has promised that when we continue to do all that we can do, He will do what we cannot.

So, after you pray, believing in faith that God will answer your prayers, stay alert and watch for a tiny cloud that may hold your answer. Keep an open mind and heart and be willing to accept God's will which may be "no" or "not now".

For me, keeping a prayer journal is all about focus. Too often, we pray and then we get busy with the daily demands on our time. If our prayer was not about a major problem or a painful problem, we tend to forget we prayed. Writing down our prayer requests in a journal keeps the focus on those prayers. Even more important, when prayers are answered and we write the answer in our prayer journal, it serves as a permanent reminder that God answers every prayer.

By keeping a prayer journal, we begin to see the answers - some came quickly, some came wrapped in a package greater than we could have dreamed, and some are still pending. But the bottom line, every prayer is answered.