incredible prayer

Are you shocked at how God answers some people’s prayers?  I am.  There are some people who seem to do the wrong thing and get rewarded or blessed more than the people who do what is right from the start.

The thing that I believe more than anything else is that God knows the truth and will reward the truth, but the reward will come is in His time.

2 Chronicles 30:20 (NLT) 


And the LORD listened to Hezekiah’s prayer and healed the people.

Why did God answer Hezekiah’s prayer?  If you read about this godly king, you will find a man whose prayers made a difference.  God moved when he asked.  There are lots of examples like this in Scripture.

I desire for God to answer my prayers, but the problem often is the fact that my heart is in the wrong place.  Have you noticed that yourself?  When I ask for what I want or for what I think is best, the answer is often no or wait.  Yet when the time is right or when my heart is right, God moves to answer the request.

James 1:6 (NLT)

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

We’ve got to check our hearts making sure that our faith is totally in Him.  Too many of us pray and don’t believe God will answer or move on what we ask.  We even believe that God can, but we deep inside believe God won’t do anything.  That has got to change.

James 4:3 (NLT)

And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

I heard one person say that we ought to pray with one eye open because we expect God to answer as we pray.  That answer comes not because of who we are.  The answer comes because of where our heart is.

Jabez was a simple but incredible man who prayed an incredible prayer.  I have prayed similar prayers, and I’ve even seen and experienced some similar answers.  We know very little about Jabez other than he was righteous and believed God when he prayed this:

1 Chronicles 4:10 (NLT)

He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.

A few years ago I posted the picture of a door and asked people to join me in asking God to open a particular door for our church.  The answer was no or not now.  That door is now open because we are expanding our building by 11,000 square feet of new kids and youth space.  How awesome is that?  Years ago I prayed that God would allow us to open a dream center here in our community.  It was slow, but God’s answer wasn’t no.  Today I spent time with the 3 men who live in a place we provide and are part of the program we offer at our Dream Center.  God is changing their lives.

God still answers incredible prayers.  It is time that you and I begin to believe God and pray with one eye open awaiting the incredible answer God will give to incredible prayer.