Genesis 22-24

The man prayed. And before he said “Amen,” the answer to his prayer was right in front of him. Now, you might say Rebekah went to the well every night at that time. Must be a coincidence, right?

Not at all. To prove this was more than a happy accident, God gave Rebekah the exact words the man prayed.

This was a direct answer to prayer.

I talked to my sister this morning before I read these chapters in Genesis. I love God’s timing. She told me that she and her daughter had taken two cross necklaces to a jeweler. They needed a chain for one of the crosses, and the chain for the other one repaired. The owner of the store explained that their business was struggling so they no longer did repairs, and they didn’t have what they were looking for. So my sister picked up the boxes from the counter and returned to their car.

My niece said she would take the necklaces to another jeweler at a later time, so they headed back home. My sister sat in the passenger seat, holding the two boxes. When they pulled into my niece’s garage, her mom handed her the boxes, got into her own car and headed home. At least that what my sister remembered happening.

Later, my niece asked her mom if she had the necklaces. My sister reminded her that she had given the boxes to her. I think both mom and daughter doubted the memory of the other at this point. And neither was 100% sure their own memory was correct.

My niece and her husband have a security camera in their garage, so she looked at the video and watched her mom hand her the boxes, watched herself take those boxes into the house. Mystery solved. Well, kind of. Now she knew they got into the house. But where were they now?

She started looking everywhere. Then, when she didn’t find them, she looked again. When her husband got home, he looked. For two days they searched. I’m pretty sure there isn’t an inch in the whole house that wasn’t uncovered. Still, no jewelry boxes.

My sister, seeing how upset her daughter was after days of frantic search, prayed. “God, please help her find those boxes.”

About that time, my niece wondered if she had somehow put them in the trash. But the trash was at the street ready for pick-up. She hurried to the curb and pulled out three bags. She figured the top two bags had been filled after the jewelry went missing. So she opened the third bag and there – on the top – were the missing boxes!

An answer to prayer, or a coincidence?

Sometimes we seem to think there are some things we should just handle on our own. It’s such a little problem, we don’t want to bother God. He’s a busy guy. So we try this, then that, we search here, then there. And finally, we pray.

Friend, let me encourage you to pray. Not as a last resort, but may prayer be our first line of defense. The man’s answered prayer in the chapters we read today in Genesis, and my sister’s testimony today ought to remind us that God answers prayer. God delights in answering our prayers. We have not because we ask not.

These two examples aren’t necessarily about getting a wife for Isaac or finding two valuable pieces of jewelry. Both these examples point to a God who is intimately involved in the lives of his children. This is about a God who answers prayer. Yes, I know not all prayers are answered in this same way. Some prayers are answered with a “No,” or a “Wait.”

Pray anyway. Then trust the Lord to answer your prayer in exactly the way He knows is best. And when you get an answer to prayer… shout it from the rooftops. Or tell it to a sister who might put it in a blog and into cyberspace.

And may God be glorified when we pray.