Answered Prayer
by Gunvor Rekstad
John the Baptist was the son of a woman who was unable to conceive. All through her married life Elizabeth, John’s mother, had been waiting to become pregnant. The time came when humanly speaking it was impossible. Then God made it possible. ‘For nothing is impossible with God’, as the angel said.
I know a little girl who is now thirteen years old, and she is also a child of parents who were unable to have children. Throughout the years her mother and father wished and hoped for a child, but each pregnancy ended with miscarriage and tears and sorrow.
Needs and problems were prayed for in our prayer group. One spring a “moment of truth” dawned on everyone. We suddenly realized that the same prayers were being prayed over and over again: ‘Dear God, I need your help at work. Dear God, my work situation is so insecure. Dear God, my health is so poor. Dear God, you see the cancer. Dear God, you know we want a child’. Everybody wanted gifts from God: help at work, better health, healing, a child.
It dawned on us that we had sought after the gifts more than or even instead of the giver. In the struggles of everyday life our point of focus had shifted. We confessed and repented, asked God for forgiveness and worshipped Him for who He is. Our prayers changed and we now started to listen more. What was on God’s heart? Did he have something to say to us? What did God want us to pray about and pray for? And when we listened, God spoke.
And God had heard too. As autumn came, the growing belly was a fact, and during spring she was born, the little girl.
Prayer: Lord, I praise You that nothing is impossible for You. You are God of the impossible. We thank you for looking after us in all our impossibilities. Amen.
Gunvor Rekstad has been the director of Ellel Ministries Norway since 2005. She is a mother of three, has six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She was involved in teaching, prayer ministry and Christian counselling for many years before becoming involved in Ellel Ministries. She also loves photography and has published four books.
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