The Bible is full of stories and admonitions regarding prayer. Since mid-May, we’ve been exploring these biblical patterns of prayer in our Sunday morning worship services. You can find the sermons here on our website. These stories and patterns from Scripture are intensely encouraging.

One of my favorites is the text for this weekend’s sermon: Acts 4:23-31. After the apostles were arrested and told not to preach, they returned to tell the rest of the church. They didn’t complain, protest, write an editorial, or call their local politician. Rather, they prayed. They sought God.

They praised God’s glory and sovereignty as they quoted Psalm 2. Their prayer was humble, together, and scriptural. And God answered their prayer directly. They asked for boldness to preach the gospel and for God’s divine power to rest on their ministry. God gave them both answers. What we discover in Acts 4 is that God loves to answer our prayers.

Here are some more answers to prayer that we’ve experienced at Wilkesboro Baptist in the past week. I hope these answers will encourage you to keep praying.

• Here are a few health concerns where church members were prayed for and have experienced strength, grace, and even healing. A church member who had emergency stomach surgery is home and doing well. Another church member is recovering after having stints. A church member who’s had several shoulder surgeries got a great report after visiting with the doctor. The shoulder is healing as expected and will get stronger.
• Here’s a longer praise that reflects an immediate answer to prayer. A church member and her sister have experienced timely answers to prayer calling them “Sarah’s Miracles.” Recently, an electrical fire started in Sarah’s kitchen. Her sister, member of WBC, rushed to Galax, VA praying the whole way for her sister to be safe and for there to be only minor damage. She arrived to find everyone safe with minor damage. And as an added blessing, the insurance company is paying for the clean up and new flooring.
• A child of church members who we’ve prayed to trust in Christ for years, trusted in Jesus as Lord last week!
• And here’s a praise from one of our mission partners. Ashley has served Muslim refugees in Central Asia. “Mrs. B.” was a part of one of the families she ministered to before leaving for the US during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Mrs. B.” has experienced health problems, marriage challenges, and significant difficulties related to being a refugee. During their last in-country conversation, Ashley read the story of the woman who had the issue of blood healed by Jesus when she reached out to touch his robe. Ashley and her team also left stories and Scriptures in audio for “Mrs. B.” to listen to. On a recent video call with “Mrs. B.,” Ashley witnessed “Mrs. B.’s” depression and sadness. She reminded her of the story of the woman who was healed by touching Jesus’ robe and asked her about listening to the stories of Jesus. At that, “Mrs. B” visibly changed and began talking about listening to the stories of Jesus. Some team members visited with her after this conversation and “Mrs. B.” shared that she is becoming a follower of Jesus!

These are just a few answers to prayer. There are so many more. God invites us to pray and wants to answer us. I would encourage you to keep a journal of how God answers your prayers. Would you also take some time to pray for missionaries and pastors and each other as we share the good news? If you are part of WBC, here’s our mission partner list and how you can pray for them regularly. As you can see, God is working and answering. Praying is our part in the process.

Photo by Calvin Hanson on Unsplash