When I first learned how to pray effectively, I was (and still am) in awe of how God answered prayer. Sometimes it happened immediately and sometimes He was still working out the answer. Many times God answered the prayer in an unexpected way. Not bad, just different from what I had expected.
I learned early on there are only three answers to prayer: Yes, No and Wait. While we rejoice in the yes answers, the no answers don’t keep me down because it only means He has something better for me and my family or He was protecting me from something I didn’t know about regarding that prayer. And the wait…well, that’s the hardest answer to bear, particularly if it’s crucial like a physical, financial or emotional need. And our family has had them over the years. Big time. 
What’s exciting about it is that I’m in an expectant mood to see how He will answer it.
Some people think prayer is private and often it should be. Each person should sit with their creator and work out the details of their lives with Him. God loves us and He wants to hear from us. Whether it’s just a few words telling Him about your day or if it’s a more in-depth conversation about life events or personal issues. He wants to hear every detail of our lives, no matter how small. Remember He has the hairs on your head counted so if that isn’t detailed enough, I don’t know what is.
Over the years, my husband and I have prayed hundreds of thousands of prayers. Some corporately and some individually. But we try to make it a priority every day. It doesn’t always work out that way but we try.
Most of the time my prayers begin by giving Him glory. I move on to asking for forgiveness because I know I need it every day. The prayer then turns to the needs of my family and friends, then my own needs and finally for global issues. God has been faithful over the years to answer my prayers so I will continue to pray to Him. Sometimes it’s daunting but I know God has called me to be a prayer warrior so that is what I will do.
Just this past Sunday we prayed for an individual who had severed a tendon and needed surgery. My husband and I prayed, and we were specific in our prayer: the surgeon would be a believer in Christ, that the surgery would be scheduled quickly and that the recuperation period would be minimal. The next day, I received an excited call. The surgeon who would do the surgery is, in fact, a believer along with his physician’s assistant and the surgery would happen today. Specific answers to specific prayers. This morning we prayed for God’s own hands to guide the doctor’s hands and that the surgery would go well without issue.
I could fill thousands of pages talking about how God answered prayer, sometimes, unbelievable answers! I try to remind myself of all the times He was faithful even when I was not.
These answers to prayer are what I call God Stories. I pray you have an abundance of your own God Stories. If you would like to share those stories here, we’d love to hear them!
I have a story I would like to share about answered prayer. I was working for an older lady many years ago cleaning her adorable little apartment that was attached to her daughter’s home. I cleaned a small plate that she had hanging next to her kitchen sink and hung it back up on the nail. I turned to do another chore and after several seconds, I heard a crash! The small plate had come off the nail and broke into pieces! I felt terrible and apologized for the mishap and she immediately said not to even worry about it and that it was a discontinued Home Interiors piece. I then told her that I would look for one like it at yard sales as I loved going to them, but she just thought nothing of it.
Two days later I stopped at a yard sale and before getting out of the car, I asked God to help me find this plate. I walked into the sale and within a minute I spotted that exact plate along with a matching plate and small vase!!! I started laughing out loud and the lady who was having the sale looked very oddly at me. I then told her what I had done breaking the plate and prayed that I would find another and looking flabbergasted, she told me that she had them in her kitchen for years and just before I came, she decided to put them in her sale!!! Talk about God answering prayer and putting that idea into that lady’s mind!!! There was no question that God answers prayers!!
Oh, and the lady I cleaned for was in awe when I told her that story!!
I have other stories similar to this that God helped me to find something at a yard sale too! He was my yard sale companion many times! 😁
That’s such a GREAT story! I love it! God does answer our prayers. But not always in the way we think He should. He only has three answers: Yes (which is what happened in your case, No (which ONLY means He has something MUCH better in store than what you asked for), and Wait (this answer is usually the hardest to deal with. I remember when we lived in Virginia, we hated the area but loved our church. We prayed and prayed about moving and my husband kept saying…I haven’t heard anything from the Lord. We were there for four years. It wasn’t until he lost his job that we realized he had answered prayer because not three weeks later, he had another job here in Raleigh. This may not seem like much but my husband was 61 at the time. Too young to retire and most of the time, employers don’t want older workers. We realized we were supposed to be there because my husband had lessons to learn and he learned them well.) 🙂
I have so many what I call “God Stories” that are both mine and my husband’s. When I have a Scripture verse that applies to one of them, I usually try to share them.