Answered Prayers

I find the concept of answered prayers rather allusive.  Most of my life I have thought that if I didn't pray for the "really important things" then God really didn't have time for me.  Life has taught me something quite different.

I remember a few years ago literally stopping everything I was doing and praying.  I was praying for something rather HUGE to me...but in the grand scheme of the world, it probably wasn't that big of a deal.  But again, in my world, it was everything.  I remember the prayer wasn't earth shattering.  It was simply a desperate plea for something that I wanted.  Something that, at the time, was the most important thing to me.

I can count on one hand how many times I have seen God answer prayers in my life.  Let me clarify a little.  I'm talking literally giving me exactly what I asked for.  For all intensive purposes there have actually been numerous answered prayers in my life.  Some that I have been aware of in hindsight, and some I still can't see.  However, few and far between have been literally what I asked for.  And I don't think that's a bad thing.  I know for myself, what I often ask for or even secretly desire isn't always what is best for me.  And even if it is what's "best for me", prayers often don't get answered exactly how I see fit.  But the beauty is being able to see how much better God's plan is for me.

You see that day, as I sat under a tree clinging to my cell-phone, I, along with my mom, prayed.  Prayed for not only what I wanted, but that His will be done.  I know...hefty stuff.  Because it's one thing to read about it in the Bible.  [Luke 22:42]  It's also one thing to say it.  But I was sincerely, desperately asking for something that was so important to me at the time that I had no alternative but to hand it over and trust that God would do what He saw fit.  Even bigger, I had to trust my heart with His decision.  As you might guess, my prayer that day was answered.  And I literally got what I wanted.  But I also know I learned something so valuable that day, that I'm still grappling with its implications.

As I sit here tonight, I am still in awe that once again I find myself smacked in the face with another answered prayer.  Again, this time literally what I asked for.  And I am left with this simple truth.  God truly cares about our hearts.  Nothing is too small or unimportant.

So while I'm not going to lie, I still struggle trusting that God will answer my prayers.  And I quite often question why He seems to be either ignoring me, or has other ideas of how things should be.  But what I also know, yet in my humanness often forget, is that He DOES answer prayers.  If it's important to you...it's important to Him.  He LOVES us!  It really is that simple.   Perhaps the point is actually in the asking?

But I think that's a whole other conversation.