God Answered My Prayer

The day that God answered my prayer. But, first, a little background. I became a Christian (a follower of Jesus) at 6 years old. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t go into detail here. I have served God in every capacity of my life. I still do. As I grew up, aged, and became an adult, I realized something. I was called to pray. Not just a normal person who prays, but someone in the Christian world that we call a prayer warrior and an intercessor. It’s a person who sees something and can’t let it go. It’s a gift or a calling to prayer. All the time, every day. It’s a little hard to explain, but I’ll do my best. An example might be—someone walks into the room, and God says, “See them, pray for them.” And so I do. It’s as simple as that. I’ve been that way since my teenage years and actually thought it happened to every Christian. I found out later that it did not. There are other callings or gifts. I hope I’ve made it simple to understand. 

When I became pregnant with my first child, I did what I believe every Christian mom would do. I laid my hands on my big fat belly, and I prayed over my unborn baby. I prayed hard. I prayed for many things; I wanted her to grow up knowing God and having a relationship with him. It was my most important prayer, along with her being healthy, of course. I did the same prayer for all my pregnancies. And, when I prayed, I prayed the house down! I remember telling God that their relationship with Him was the most important thing to me. 

Now fast forward to grandchildren. I have 9. All received that same type of prayer from me. I prayed the house down. I’m using that expression to express the importance of my prayer. I wanted my grandchildren, all 9 of them, to serve God. Plain and simple, whatever else they did, well, that was up to them. I knew that I knew, they would be the smartest kids on earth, that they'd be the cutest and the best grandkids ever. After all, they were mine. I’m not biased or anything. 

And then one day, my world changed around me. Everything stopped and changed in the blink of an eye. My oldest grandchild was killed in a horrible car accident. I could not fathom God letting this happen. Why did God do this to me, and to my daughter? I could not understand, nor did I want to. I was so devastated and angry with God for not protecting him (did He not hear my prayer?) that I closed myself off from God and stewed in my anger. As the months went on, when I prayed, I prayed in anger. How God, why God, didn’t you hear me, God? This went on for 18 months.

And then one day, while I was crying and missing my grandson, God spoke. As I’ve shared before, I have never heard the audible voice of God. I hear him in my mind.  In the Bible, there is a verse that says, " My children will know my voice”. I know His voice. He spoke. And this is what He said. “I answered your prayers. I heard you and answered you.” And, he began to remind me of those days of laying my hands on my stomach and praying for my babies. He reminded me of rocking my grandchild and praying over them. He reminded me of what I asked for. I began to feel a little sick to my stomach as I asked him what specifically I had asked for that He would take the life of one of my grandchildren? He then reminded me of the many times I had prayed for their relationship with Him, and of all the times I had told God I did not want to go to heaven without them. I would pray—whatever it takes, God, do it, because I want them in heaven. As I sat there stunned, I realized in that moment it was my fault. I prayed for an early death for my very own grandchild. Now, try to wrap your brain around that one!

It took me days of praying, crying, and then coming to terms with the fact that he died that day, so that he would be in heaven when I got there. I would see my grandson again. No doubt in my mind. Now, what I then had to grapple with was the timing. This is what God showed me. My grandson was ready in the very moment of his death to meet God. He might not have had another God moment. This is so hard to explain. I began doing a lot of research in the Bible about God taking people home to be with him, because if He had waited, they would not have been in the right relationship with God. There are many times that God did this, it was to spare them. 

It took me a while to accept this revelation from God. It took me some time to be thankful, to know that my grandson will be there waiting for me and thanking me for praying him home to heaven. What a concept. Praying him home. That was the next thing that God talked to me about. However, I will share that in another blog. I’ve got to let you decide whether you believe this or not. You need to do your own research on the matter. Please do this. It’s important that you run everything that I am writing about through the Bible. As a Christian, this is important to me. God answers prayers. He answered mine, whether I liked the timing or not. His way is and has always been the best way. And I stand on that. On that day, God answered my prayer.