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More Answered Prayers even across the world…

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

Answered Prayers…

My current sermon series has been “Patterns of Prayer.” During this Covid-19 crisis, racial tensions, political turmoil, and uncertain lives, I felt it necessary to focus my study on the subject of prayer. Prayer is something that everyone knows about, but most of us would admit that we could do better. For me, this series has been tremendously beneficial. God has taught me more about himself in this series than maybe any other that I’ve preached.

So why write an article about it? This post is aimed to encourage you to pray. Specifically, intercede for someone else.

Here are some reasons you should make time to today to pray:

  1. God invites you to pray. In Luke 11:9, Jesus teaches us to ask, seek, and knock. He wants us to bring our burdens before him.
  2. You need prayer more than you think. Prayer is our avenue of talking with God. Too often we ignore God because of all the other things we have going on. Make time to talk with God today.
  3. Someone else needs you to pray for them. Interceding for another person is a privilege. God partners with our prayers to meet the needs (physical, spiritual, emotional) of those around us.

When you pray today, pray specifically and pray scripturally. For example, pray for your friend by name. Pray for their healing, their need to be met, their soul to be saved, etc. But pray in a specific way that will allow you to know if God answers the prayer. While prayers like “bless my friend” or “be with the missionaries” are well meant, they are not specific enough for us to know they have been answered. Specific prayers allow us to experience the answers.

Also pray scripturally. If you are praying for someone to come to know Christ, pray that God would open their eyes to see his glory (2 Corinthians 4:4) or that God would convict their heart of sin (John 16:8-11). If you are praying that a friend would experience peace, pray that your friend would be thankful and experience the peace of God that passes understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). If you are praying for a child or grandchild to know God’s will, pray Psalm 23 over their decisions and opportunities. Praying scripturally helps us align our prayers with God’s will.

Praying specifically and scripturally allows us to experience God’s answers to prayer. Here are a few of the specific ways God answered my prayers recently.

  • Our family prayed for God’s protection while we traveled. Answer: A vehicle in front of us experienced a blowout and a tractor trailer nearly rear-ended us. We experienced God’s answer for protection.
  • A family friend had brain surgery, and we prayed for her peace and that the surgery would go as planned. Answer: She was released from the hospital earlier than expected and experienced God’s peace during and after the surgery.
  • A church member was admitted to the hospital with stroke-like symptoms. We prayed that the medical team would have wisdom in his care, and that his health would improve. Answer: His issue was not a stroke, but something more manageable. He is now home.
  • A lady who is connected to our church has been struggling with sensing God in her life. For nearly a year, we’ve prayed that God would save her and make himself real to her. Answer: This past week, she put her faith in Christ alone for salvation.

God doesn’t always answer every prayer request as quickly or in the way that I might ask. But he does answer. I would encourage you to develop a prayer journal where you track how God works in your prayer life. Reflect often on his answered prayers. Remember, you can bring anything before God in prayer, but he loves it when you intercede for someone else.

Photo by Danylo Suprun on Unsplash