God’s power is more than sufficient to answer our prayers. As Christ-followers, we know that. What we don’t know is how he will do it. Guest blogger Mark Arnold is here with a story about how his prayer was answered on a very rainy day.

Each Thursday, we take our son James to his craft session at the community center. It is one of the few things that we can get him to attend. Even then, he does the craft activity in the car. To get him there, the weather needs to be “Goldilocks” weather… not too hot, not too windy, and not wet at all. Otherwise, James struggles to transition from home to the car, and massively struggles to transition back from the car to the house when we get home.

Today we took a massive risk. It was raining lightly when it was time to go to the craft class, but we went for it anyway. James only realized that it was raining when he got outside. I quickly shut the door so he had to dash for the car. He quickly settled in the back seat and was fine. I, however, was still worried.

It’s one thing hurrying James from the front door to the car, but it would be an entirely different one to get him to leave a dry, warm, car to dash through the rain to the house when we returned from the craft activity. It once took an hour and a half to get him out of the car and into school while I held an umbrella to shelter him from the rain while I got soaked. Today I had visions we might be having tea in the car, a sleepover in the car, Help!

Humanly, this day would be really hard, so I sought higher help.

“Lord, you know this is looking really difficult, please when we get home help James to transition quickly from the car to the house. In human terms, this is unlikely, but to you nothing is impossible.”

We drove on. My worries remained. What would happen? Had God heard my prayer? Would he answer in the way that I hoped?

Home got nearer, and my anxiety increased. As we were pulling onto the drive, the rain got stronger. It was time to get James out of the car. I prayed again.

James noticed the rain when it dripped on his leg as the car door was opened. He shrank back into the car. He noticed some rain on the inside of the open car door and wiped it away too. He showed no sign of being willing to come out of the car.

Where was God? Had he heard my prayer and ignored it?

I got an umbrella. I did everything in my power to coax James out. Nothing worked. My power was not enough.

I noticed that the rain had stopped. James noticed it too. One leg emerged from the car followed by another. He shuffled forward.

I wanted to rush in and encourage him, but felt a sense of “Stop. Wait.” I stopped. I waited. James hesitantly stood up and headed for the house.

My power had not been enough. In this case, it was not needed. God’s power was more than sufficient.

He had answered my prayer and used it to teach me something. It’s not all about me and what I can do. Sometimes it’s about standing back, watching, and seeing that God’s power is more than sufficient to answer our prayers in ways we don’t expect.

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Photo by Max on Unsplash