God lives! He hears and answers prayers!

I have been studying the missionary manual "Preach My Gospel" and as one of the activities it encourages me to write an article about the message of the Restoration.  As I thought about this activity, I felt I needed to put it up on my blog...so I have been procrastinating doing it for 2 weeks, but I am finally here writing this up!:)

"God's not Dead" is a Christian film that recently came out (mostly loved it!:);  I like the name, but  God's not dead is only part of the story, the real story is God lives.

When I think of something that is not dead, it doesn't exactly mean that it is alive. Right now I have some plants that aren't dead, but they aren't producing flowers, or fruit, they are in a dormant state,  an 'I need a break' stage.  But to live, means so much more!  To live is to have life, to be vibrant.  God lives, He is really involved in our lives and He cares about us.  He knows our names!  He cares about our choices.  He is sad when we make bad choices and rejoices when we make good choices.  He gives us ample opportunities to choose good, to choose His Son, Jesus Christ, but he will never force us to choose good.  You can see that he lives in the rainbows that come after a rainstorm, in the helping hands that show up to help after a disaster, and in the random acts of kindness done throughout the world!

Not only does God live, but He hears and answers prayers.  Sometimes the answer is no, even if we really think we deserve our request.  God knows exactly what we need and he has the wisdom that we lack to give us exactly what we need.  Sometimes he lets us experience failure by answering yes.  Sometimes his answer is not right now.  Sometimes we must work for our prayers to be answered.  However, I know that God does answer prayers.

Oftentimes you don't realize that God has really answered your prayers until you look back on those times when you were crying out in desperate need and you look at the outcome of that event.  They say that hindsight is 20/20, and when it comes to prayers I totally agree.

Just because you didn't get the answer you wanted doesn't mean that God didn't answer.  I challenge you to look at the times in your life when you were struggling and see if you can find God in the details.  He will be there, if you look hard enough!