Daily Bread

God Answers Prayer – Part One

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

 

 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”  But He answered her not a word …Matthew 15:22-23a

Did it ever feel like God wasn’t paying any attention to your or your needs? That is undoubtedly exactly the feeling that this woman experienced. She cried. She begged. She fell to His feet. Nothing she could do or say seemed to touch the Lord. Her story reminded me of the Bangladeshi people who came to work the gravel of the dry river banks in North India. They were rejected by most of the local people and forced to take the lowest and most menial jobs. Yet Jesus made His only trip abroad and in retrospect came only for this one woman as an answer to her prayers.

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Bangladeshi Women in North India

So when it seems as if Jesus is not listening and when no one else seems to believe that we will find the answer, we have a decision to make. Will we continue to believe or will we go away? Will we continue to ask or will we give up in desperation?  For all of us there comes that single moment when we have to decide what to do with silence. This woman who appeared to have no background, no friends and no hope leaves us with a testimony of hope, not only that God is listening but that He cares enough to hear and answer our prayer! It is if you could think that Jesus made the trip to earth, just for you!

Stretch Out Your Hand

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Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.  And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Exodus 14:21-22

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In our walk of grace we sometimes begin to think that since nothing happens without God’s approval and that everything comes to us by grace that we have no role whatsoever in God’s plan. Nothing in the Bible however gives us any indication that such thinking is accurate. All of the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews chapter eleven are inked to action! Abel offered a sacrifice, Noah built an ark, Abraham left his native land. Moses was hidden by his parents and Rahab protected the spies. Not only these brave men and women but in fact all of us who belong to God’s family have a distinct, active and essential role to play.

Notice the order of the verses we are reading in Exodus: Moses stretched out his hand, then the Lord drove back the sea. The people of Israel passed through the sea then God closed the waters over their enemies.

The staff Moses carried wasn’t some mystical gift from an angel or a golden scepter which he had taken from Egypt.  Moses’ staff was simply the tool of his shepherding work.

When the people of Moses’ time saw the staff Moses lifted up they didn’t think of it as something quaint or impressive in any way. The fact that God chose to honor his simple obedience had nothing to do with the staff and everything to do with the humility of surrender.

What are the tools of your own daily life? Whether you carry a chain saw or a laptop to work, God can choose to use anything you surrender to his command. Stretch out your hand! God is waiting on our faith made visible by our obedience to His Word!

God sees to the Horizon

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Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good,… Genesis 50:18-20a

Way back at the beginning of the story of Joseph’s life and dreams he hoped his brothers would listen to him. But here many years later we see that God had worked in Joseph’s heart to the point where it was Joseph who had learned to listen to them. He who had interpreted the dreams of a king had a more difficult task at hand, to listen to the fears of his brothers. Joseph had never been accepted. He was born to a different mother, he had been given a different robe, a different position and later an entirely different set of life’s experiences. But at the end of the day the deepest lesson Joseph had learned was to forgive his brothers and to see it all as good in the hands of God.

Have there been life altering circumstances brought into your life as the result of the sins of others? Have you been talked about, unjustly accused and suffered legal consequences all because of a lie? All of that and more happened to Joseph and yet God had chosen those exact situations to work together for good. And the most amazing thing of all about God’s goodness is not just that he turned his brothers’ sin into good in Joseph’s life, but that He also turned everything around for the good of even those brothers!

“God is good all the time” we often shout in church. But while we often think first of God being good to us we need to remember that he also wants to be good to our enemies. Jesus told us to forgive our enemies and Joseph shows us that we can also learn to listen to them. Take this moment to sincerely pray and ask Godimg_3260 if He has put someone in your life who has caused you pain, who you should be listening to and forgiving just as Joseph did. Choose now to forgive because God means it all for good: everyone’s good. We may see only the barriers of the bad things that they have done but God sees beyond to the horizon!!