We are all familiar with prayer requests.  We make them every day for ourselves, our family, our friends, and for people we don’t even know.  God hears them, sorts them out and answers them; maybe the way we think we want or in in ways we don’t know or understand.  Many times we don’t remember the prayers God answered and just complain about the ones we think he didn’t.  One prayer request I made many years ago is engraved indelibly on my heart and I get emotional even thinking about it.  I prayed for A CHURCH; not the church; A CHURCH.

You see about two years after we were married we bought a house on two acres of land out in the country.  We were only 15-20 miles away from several urban areas with many fine churches but we didn’t want to make the effort to find one,  However, after our children were born I realized I needed to get them baptized and into Sunday School.  Since my husband was not baptized he didn’t quite understand what I was feeling.  I started praying for a church in our area.  This probably went on for about a year.

One day I went to the new convenience store just three miles from our house to get some milk. (something I had been unable to do for ten years) There was a white poster board in the window with these words, “Interested in forming a new Lutheran church in Roscoe?”  It had a name and phone number.  I could barely wait to get home and call and as they say, the rest is history.  Prayer answered.  My husband and children were among the first people baptized that year.  Even better, the church was later built less than a mile from our house.

Perhaps you can think of a time when God answered your special prayer.  Enjoy the way it made and continues to make you feel.  Chase away your negative thoughts and surround yourself with the positive effects of all that love that God showers on us daily.  Read Philippians 4:6 and give God thanks for prayers and his unconditional love.

Nancy