EMPOWERING LIVES WITH PURPOSE:
I remember as an 8-year-old little girl always wanting a “Lassie dog,” and I would pray and pray for one of my own, especially every time I watched “Lassie” on TV. Even as a small child, God heard my prayers of faith and knew I was believing He’d bring me my own Collie one day.
I was taught patience and encouraged by my parents not to give up on my prayers to God. I continued my prayers of faith to trust God to bring me a puppy, knowing He would deliver if I kept praying and asking. It seemed like it took forever, but I learned not to give up.
God is able to meet our needs. All of them. I was not a bother to God with my desires as a child. God saw my unmet need, I exposed that need, and actually, my parents ended up meeting that need, and I got a big dog. Ultimately, God most definitely played His part in this story. He allowed me to remember those prayers to Him for the rest of my life, and he answered them. He used my parents to help.
Although Shep wasn’t the exact Collie I wanted from TV, he was a big Golden Retriever! He was everything my brothers and I could hope for. Adorable and just as cute as Lassie, that dog became the best childhood pet the whole neighborhood could ever love, including me, and my 3 siblings! He was with us through thick and thin throughout our whole childhood, and the neighborhood dog, too!
I learned to trust God through that cycle of asking – through prayer. My unmet need was brought to God every night at bedtime. If we are not expressing our needs to God, how can we grow to trust Him when things come about in our lives? Are they by chance? Definitely not! God hears us when we pray. Always.
When we ask God, He proves His goodness. I may not have gotten the exact prayer answered that I prayed for, and sometimes we don’t, right? But it came in a different shape, breed and color, but it was most definitely answered. Shep was big and all I could ever want in a dog filled with yummy love, lots of fluffy hair and just as special!
“Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)
Often, we give up before we trust God to answer us. Take your needs to God in prayer. Watch for the ways He answers and meets your needs, whatever you are asking for. It may look a little differently than you anticipated, but you’ll soon learn that God is reliable. You can count on Him to meet your every need and give you the desires of your heart because that’s what He says He’ll do.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)