How deeply rooted must unbelief be in our hearts when we are surprised to find our prayer answered!

"Lord, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark 9:24

So many times we go through our lives, tuning out God and the miracles that take place around us.    Once I decided to keep a prayer journal of people and things I prayed for.    Nothing very elaborate, just the date on top, a person’s name and a short one or two word description of what the request was about.    

Keeping a prayer journal is very helpful because if you’re like me you’ll run out of things to say and awkward pauses are even more awkward when it’s just you and God.   

Once I had a teenage girl in our Youth Group who was absolutely terrified to pray.    I’d work with her everyday while we were on a two week youth trip to North Carolina.    After we would eat, we’d spend some time talking about prayer.   

“Did you hear how Amy prayed today” I might ask.   She’d say yes and then together we would mimic the prayer.    We worked really, really hard to the day that she would say a prayer for us at lunch.    

All the kids knew she had been working hard for this moment so as we all gathered and held hands, there was a silence of anticipation as I asked her to pray for us.    

“Let’s bow our heads now,” I helped her get started.  

Then.   There it was, the long awkward pause.    I looked up out of the corner of one eye and could see her mouthing words to try to get started.   You could see that she was so torn it was hard for me to watch.    But she had made me promise not to interfere so I tried my best to keep quiet.   

Finally after the long awkward silence she gave a very heavy sigh.   Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and her shoulders bunched up, ready to say the prayer.    

She said, “Dear God. . . . . . . Dear God. . . . . . . Dear God, I got nothing.”   

I said Amen and for us to eat.    

I told her that even a prayer that had nothing, still had God in it.   Not just once but three times!   

I’ve had those kinds of days.   I know there’s a lot of things to pray about, but when I start, I wind up with nothing.    Which is where the miracle of a prayer journal helps.    You can always look back and see who you’ve prayed for and continue to ask for help for that person.     

Now let me tell you about the miracle. 

About a year after I had started the prayer journal I decided to go back and look at the requests I made to God.    I had long ago forgotten most of them.    But when I started to look at them, I soon discovered that God never forgot.    

People were healed.   Maybe not immediately, and there may have been a long recovery, but overall most people felt like God helped in their healing process.  

People got jobs.   Maybe not the one they asked for in the prayer request, but definitely the one they needed.    People devoted their lives to God.   People learned forgiveness.    

In nearly every instance, you could see the prayer at work.   Long after I’d forgotten what the request was, and sometimes even the people making the request, God was at work in their lives.   

Think about starting a prayer journal today.    There’s a whole bunch of stuff out there that needs praying for.    And when you go to God in prayer, you won’t say, “I got nothing.” 

Let us pray. 

Dear God.  We look to you for love, God, because, on our own, we are tempted to be just the opposite.  Empower us with your Spirit today and always. And now please accept the prayers we offer unto you.  In Christ’s name we pray.  AMEN.