God Answers Prayer

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

-1 John 5:14-15, NIV

What an amazing promise!

God hears and answers our prayers. And He answers “yes” if we pray “according to His will.” I love that promise! It gives me such assurance. God often answers my prayers with “no” or “wait” because He won’t violate His own sovereign will. He only answers “yes” to prayers that align with His plan in His time.

This means that I can NEVER twist God’s arm with my prayer. My prayers can never make Him do what He doesn’t already intend to do. What a comfort to know that the God of all creation can’t be controlled by the whims of a mere human!

But God will move heaven and earth (literally) to answer prayers aligned with His will. What assurance!

So when we ask God to transform us, to bring us to repentance, we know He will answer affirmatively. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but He will answer.

Or when we ask God to show us new avenues by which to share His love, He will answer. Maybe not in ways we expect, but He will answer.

And when we ask God to help us love one another, He will answer. Maybe He’ll use trials to get us there, but He will answer.
All of these prayers are rooted in Scripture. They align with God’s will as He reveals it in His written Word. So we know we pray according to His will when our prayers line up with what God says in the Bible.

But God also answers prayers that shine light on His hidden will for each of our lives. He uses our answered prayers to align us to His will. When we don’t get our way in our prayers, we change our prayers to His way! Perhaps we pray for physical healing and don’t get it. We then adapt our prayers to His apparent plan for us. We pray for Him to change our hearts, to accept the lack of physical healing.

Indeed, God changes us through our prayers. We don’t twist His arm – He twists our hearts!
Sometimes God lets us know ahead of time that He plans to answer our prayer affirmatively. What fun to sense we are praying right along with His mysterious will. Sometimes we don’t know until the prayer is answered that God planned to do so all along. I prayed for a new job in very specific terms but had no sense that God planned to answer my prayer until days later when I received an email about the Stonecroft position I now hold!

Stonecroft’s staff and I have prayed for God’s direction to move this ministry forward so that many more women of all ages and backgrounds – where they are, as they are­ – would begin a relationship with Him through our ministry for years to come. We have prayed to develop new effective forms of evangelistic outreach. We have prayed for more of our volunteers to join Stonecroft Prays! gatherings. We have prayed for younger women to join us as evangelists. We have prayed for all our outreaches to effectively share the Gospel. We have prayed for God to call just the right people to the staff.

And God has answered “Yes!” We are so encouraged to sense we are moving within His will, within His timing as He has answered our prayers. We know that you, too, have prayed along with us. You want God to continue using Stonecroft, together with your efforts, to touch the lives of thousands upon thousands more women who need to know Jesus.

And God is answering our prayers! Read how in this newsletter and rejoice with us!

P. S. We have a new title for the Stonecroft Newsletter. We are all part of God’s big story as we serve in this “Storied” ministry.