DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

God is willing and able to answer our prayers, but we must do something about it. If we ask Him for something, we should be ready to act and get ready for His answer. Remember, though, it will be His answer and His timetable. He’s a Father Who loves us and will answer our prayers, even when the odds seem against us.

A hundred years ago, a young farmer’s wife died, leaving him with four young children to raise. After a year of trying, he realized he could not do this alone. Being a Christian man, he prayed and prayed, but no answer came. Finally the man realized he had to do something about it. So he got on his horse and rode to a neighbor’s farm nearby, where he asked to see their oldest unmarried daughter. When the young woman came out, he proposed to her on the spot. Of course she refused him.

Undeterred, the man rode to a second farm, and again he asked to see the oldest unmarried daughter. She came out, and he proposed to her. Amazingly, this woman accepted his proposal, and the family says they were married over forty years before one of them died.

What is amazing is that the farmer proposed without even getting off his horse! That man was related to my wife, a distant great uncle through her father. God answered the man’s prayers, in part because the man did something about it.

God works in surprising ways. Old Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for a child and God answered them through an amazing boy they named John. But they also had to do something about it. Even at their old age, they had to be part of the solution. God sent an angel to tell them to get ready for a new arrival. Their prayers were answered, but only after they did something about it.

The angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” (Luke 1:13)

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com