“Hey, you’re no longer asking for direction for your life,” said the girl taking down the prayer requests for the group. I smiled as I realized that she was right. “Yeah, hash tag answered prayer,” said another guy sitting in the room. “Yeah, God did answer my prayer,” I thought to myself. “Why had I not thought of that before?”
Since coming home from Kenya in April, I had been wondering what I was supposed to be doing in life. When I joined my church small group in August, it became my weekly prayer request. Every week, as we went around the circle and shared our prayer requests, I gave the same response: God’s direction for my life. Now, to be honest, there were some weeks when it was just a routine apathetic response; I can’t say that I was as faithful in prayer as I maybe should have been. But nonetheless, as I lifted up this prayer every week, God heard it. And as my friends prayed for me, He heard them, also. And lo and behold, a few months later, I applied and was accepted to CGA,, and I had a bit better of an idea of God’s direction for my life. #answeredprayer.
Except, can I be honest? When I first got accepted to CGA, I didn’t immediately think about the fact that God had answered my prayer. I didn’t run around telling everybody about how good God is. In fact, I didn’t even connect the dots on the answered prayer until my friend mentioned it a week later at small group. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t giving myself the glory. If anyone had asked me who made it possible for me to go to CGA, I would have been a good Christian and said, “God.” But for the first week after I got accepted, thanking God wasn’t on the forefront of my mind.
In Joshua 4, Joshua and the people of Israel have just escaped from their enemies, crossing the Jordan River on dry land as a result of God miraculously parting it. After Israel has crossed, God commands them to set up a memorial of twelve stones. He says to them, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over’ . . . so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” (Joshua 4:21-24).
The people of Israel saw how God had protected and provided for them, and they created a memorial as a way not just to thank Him then, but to thank Him for generations to come. I want to be like the Israelites. As God answers my prayers, I want to build my memorial stones, not just to thank him in the present moment but to continually be aware of how good He is. What about you? Are you giving thanks for God’s hand in your life?
Make a joyful noise to the LORD all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the LORD, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”
P.S. Want to be a part of answered prayers? I still need $500 in my support account by January 21 in order to be a part of CGA. You can either donate online or by making a check payable to Adventures in Missions with “Robby Smith – CGA” in the memo line and then mailing your check to Adventures in Missions P.O. Box 534470, Atlanta, GA 30353-4470.
