Pray...and expect things to happen.

In Andy Stanley's book "Visioneering" he talks about how critical prayer and planning is during the time of waiting for vision to become reality. He speaks about how not only is it important for you to be praying for opportunity, but also to be planning...figuring out a strategy so that when those opportunities come up you don't end up missing them. A quote from the book says, "Pray for opportunities and plan as if you expect God to answer your prayers."

This one thought has stuck with me since I've read this book. How often do we pray without really expecting God to do anything? I know I've done it plenty of times. My prayers usually sound something like "Please God...if you're willing...if it's in your will please let this happen."

Those prayers were so whimpy. Instead of praying with strength, I sounded more like I was on the fence...it was nothing more than some wishy washy prayer. And the truth of the matter was that there was no reason for me to really ask God for what I wanted, because let's face it He's God and He'll do what He wants anyhow.

But then I read the scripture that tells me, "Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:21-22 And I think of the quote from Andy Stanley's book.

Now as I pray...I pray with confidence expecting God to answer my prayers.

This weekend was a great example of this. Originally we had only five leaders signed up to serve in K.1. Now to lay it all out 5 leaders to about 100 kids...not good ratios. Plus Erin was seeking to take Sunday off, but those plans fell through with no one to cover for her. On Saturday one of our regular coaches comes in so I knew that she and I could cover the semi-less hectic Saturday service. That way Erin could take a break and attend service. My prayer through the week was that God would provide enough volunteers to cover all of our color teams. My prayer also included the fact that Tony (Erin's husband) wouldn't be needed to serve as well, so they could go to service together (something that rarely, if ever happens).

So how did it all turn out? God provided one leader for every color team, 3 leaders for our gold team (which is always the biggest) so we could split them into 3 smaller teams, and provided another room leader, so with 3 of us pointing the room Erin and Tony were able to take a well deserved break and went to service together. I prayed expecting God to work things out and He took care of it better than I imagined.