When God Answers
A Thankful Thursday post by Alexis A. Goring
“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”
– Isaiah 65:24 (NIV)
It’s Thursday and I’m thankful that God always answers my prayers—spoken and unspoken—in ways I do and oftentimes do not expect.
Last week Friday was one of those nights when my issues were hitting me, hard. I went to bed feeling burdened and I woke up on Saturday morning with a lot of pain still weighing heavy on my heart. It built up within me to the point when I started venting to God. My venting session turned into anger and despair. It got to the point where I doubted that God cared about anything I was going through because I couldn’t sense His working in any aspect of all of the issues that were causing me deep pain and sorrow.
I knew better than to tell God that He doesn’t care about me because the Bible clearly says He does (John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, Matthew 6:26, 1 Peter 5:7). However, my pain had pushed me to the point of almost believing that He didn’t care and He wasn’t there for me.
The silence I felt on God’s end of the communication line was deafening…until He spoke!
No, I didn’t hear the audible voice of God from Heaven. But I did hear His Words spoken through people who care about me. Only a few hours after my venting session, one of my church friends texted me asking if she and one of our Bible study members could visit me that afternoon to pray for me.
Now I’m used to church people visiting people who they care about to pray for them when they’re sick or struggling in a crisis. But I never had experienced a church friend randomly calling me to ask if they can visit to pray for me. But don’t you know it wasn’t random? I soon found out that God was in the details.
When I asked the friend—we’ll call her Essence—why she wanted to pray for me in person, she said “Because that’s what the Father would have us do.” She was referring to God as our Heavenly Father. I agreed to the visit. An hour later, Essence and our friend D showed up. They greeted me and encouraged me with Scripture. They read the passage from the Bible from Mark 4:35-41 (scripture), which is about the time when Jesus Christ calmed the raging storm with His Words.
Scripture says that Jesus and His disciples were in a boat on the water when a fierce storm arose. Waves broke over their boat to the point where it was nearly swamped. His disciples woke Jesus and said “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (verse 38). Jesus rose and rebuke the wind saying “Quiet! Be still!” And immediately, the wind died down and all around them became “completely calm” (verse 39). Jesus then turned to His disciples and asked them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (verse 40)
Essence then read quotes related to this Scripture from a Christian writer. She then added her own exhortation about why we as believers need to, as soon as we wake up in the morning, put on the full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) so that we can stand strong against the devil’s schemes. She reminded me specifically to raise up my “shield of faith” to stop the darts from the enemy (the devil and his demons).
Essence and D then took turns praying for me and all of my family members. They reminded me that I am loved then gave me a hug before leaving.
Immediately after they left, I prepared space for my first virtual paint night led by a ministry leader’s wife from our church home. And guess what the theme of this faith-based paint night was? She spoke on how God doesn’t mean for anyone to go through life alone. We are meant to journey together. Always use wisdom and discretion about who you open up to but know that there are safe places for you to share your heart and our paint night, she said, is one.
Even the painting that we all created taught us a spiritual lesson. We painted mountains at sunset and our host (we’ll call her Valerie), told us that God can move mountains in our life, if we only just believe.
After the sunset that Saturday, God had fully filled me with His Love through the people He sent to love on me and He also taught me a lesson for this life on Earth. God taught me that no matter what I deal with, no matter how deep the pain goes, no matter how alone I feel, I need to remember that I am never alone. There’s song by Cheri Keaggy that says we are not without hope or love because we have Jesus Christ who is always present in our life and completely there for us. The song is called “Not With Jesus”. You can listen to it here.
So in the quiet of the evening, after paint night was over, I spoke to God again. This time, it wasn’t a venting session nor was it a lament about all of my sorrows and pain. It was a time I spent thanking Him for answering my prayers that I barely could pray (asking God to show me that He cares) and asking Him to forgive me for believing even for a minute that He doesn’t care about me. I thanked Him for always being there for me and asked Him to help me always remember this day, especially when the storms of life overwhelm me because in this life we will have trouble but the good news is God is greater than all of our troubles (John 16:33).
No, I didn’t hear the audible voice of God from Heaven. But I did hear His Words spoken through people who care about me. Only a few hours after my venting session, one of my church friends texted me asking if she and one of our Bible study members could visit me that afternoon to pray for me.
Now I’m used to church people visiting people who they care about to pray for them when they’re sick or struggling in a crisis. But I never had experienced a church friend randomly calling me to ask if they can visit to pray for me. But don’t you know it wasn’t random? I soon found out that God was in the details.
When I asked the friend—we’ll call her Essence—why she wanted to pray for me in person, she said “Because that’s what the Father would have us do.” She was referring to God as our Heavenly Father. I agreed to the visit. An hour later, Essence and our friend D showed up. They greeted me and encouraged me with Scripture. They read the passage from the Bible from Mark 4:35-41 (scripture), which is about the time when Jesus Christ calmed the raging storm with His Words.
Scripture says that Jesus and His disciples were in a boat on the water when a fierce storm arose. Waves broke over their boat to the point where it was nearly swamped. His disciples woke Jesus and said “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (verse 38). Jesus rose and rebuke the wind saying “Quiet! Be still!” And immediately, the wind died down and all around them became “completely calm” (verse 39). Jesus then turned to His disciples and asked them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (verse 40)
Essence then read quotes related to this Scripture from a Christian writer. She then added her own exhortation about why we as believers need to, as soon as we wake up in the morning, put on the full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) so that we can stand strong against the devil’s schemes. She reminded me specifically to raise up my “shield of faith” to stop the darts from the enemy (the devil and his demons).
Essence and D then took turns praying for me and all of my family members. They reminded me that I am loved then gave me a hug before leaving.
Immediately after they left, I prepared space for my first virtual paint night led by a ministry leader’s wife from our church home. And guess what the theme of this faith-based paint night was? She spoke on how God doesn’t mean for anyone to go through life alone. We are meant to journey together. Always use wisdom and discretion about who you open up to but know that there are safe places for you to share your heart and our paint night, she said, is one.
Even the painting that we all created taught us a spiritual lesson. We painted mountains at sunset and our host (we’ll call her Valerie), told us that God can move mountains in our life, if we only just believe.
After the sunset that Saturday, God had fully filled me with His Love through the people He sent to love on me and He also taught me a lesson for this life on Earth. God taught me that no matter what I deal with, no matter how deep the pain goes, no matter how alone I feel, I need to remember that I am never alone. There’s song by Cheri Keaggy that says we are not without hope or love because we have Jesus Christ who is always present in our life and completely there for us. The song is called “Not With Jesus”. You can listen to it here.
So in the quiet of the evening, after paint night was over, I spoke to God again. This time, it wasn’t a venting session nor was it a lament about all of my sorrows and pain. It was a time I spent thanking Him for answering my prayers that I barely could pray (asking God to show me that He cares) and asking Him to forgive me for believing even for a minute that He doesn’t care about me. I thanked Him for always being there for me and asked Him to help me always remember this day, especially when the storms of life overwhelm me because in this life we will have trouble but the good news is God is greater than all of our troubles (John 16:33).
Jesus has gone before us. He has overcome the world and He wants to help us be overcomers of this world too.
In closing, I’d like for you to watch this full episode from Better Together TV. It’s called “Overcoming Anger with God”. You can watch it here.
Be encouraged, dear friends. The Creator (God) of the Universe LOVES YOU and He is NOT going anywhere!
With love,
Alexis A. Goring
Founder of “God is Love” blog
In closing, I’d like for you to watch this full episode from Better Together TV. It’s called “Overcoming Anger with God”. You can watch it here.
Be encouraged, dear friends. The Creator (God) of the Universe LOVES YOU and He is NOT going anywhere!
With love,
Alexis A. Goring
Founder of “God is Love” blog
God does have a way of answering our unspoken prayers. And often through people. Thanks for reminding us of this.
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