He Heard You The First Time

Not too long ago, my daughter, Alyssa, showed me an example of what it means to have a child-like faith. For the last year and a half, we had been praying for bumps on her legs to go away. The doctor said they eventually would, but she would go through phases when they would be infected and very painful. So, of course, we prayed all the time for them to go away.

During one of those prayer times, I put my hand on the bumps and prayed that Jesus would take them away. And, before I said “amen”, I prayed for them one more time. As soon as I finished, Alyssa looked at me and said, “He heard you the first time. You only have to ask Him once.”

Now there is nothing wrong about asking God more than once to answer a prayer as long as what you are praying for is within His will, but she is right when she said He heard you the first time. In Matthew 6:8, it says, “your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” And, you know what, the bumps did go away.

Sometimes God makes us wait for an answer to our prayers in order to teach us patience and perseverance. Sometimes we ask for something when allowing it is not yet in His timing for our lives. Sometimes we ask for something that is not His will for us, and He says “no.” Prayer is not only our submitting requests to God; it is God presenting His will to our hearts.

"And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of Him." – I John 5:14-15