Ask and Answered

DEVOTION

GENESIS

ASK AND ANSWERED

Gen 24:17-27

17 The servant hurried to meet her and said, "Please give me a little water from your jar." 18 "Drink, my lord," she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. 19 After she had given him a drink, she said, "I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have finished drinking." 20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. 21 Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful. 22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels.   23 Then he asked, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?" 24 She answered him, "I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor." 25 And she added, "We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night." 26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, 27 saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives."

NIV

As he was praying for this specific set of circumstances to occur in order to know God has shown kindness to his master Abraham, the exact circumstances begin to unfold. God did not make this servant wait for weeks or days, or for that matter hours, or even minutes. It was while he was still in prayer that God answered. Was that already ordained by God? Did he inspire Rebekah to leave her house at the exact moment she did in order that she was the first of the young ladies from town to arrive at the well? This could not be just a coincidence, but had to be the hand of God at work in the prayers of this servant. Without repeating all the circumstances, we have our lesson for today. Pray and expect an answer. Be specific about our prayer and watch the Lord bring about the answer. Of course, as we have already discovered, our prayer must be in accordance with his will and there should be no reason we could not know his will. This does not mean we can only pray after finding out what he wants us to pray about. This means that our prayers are not focused on issues that include some form of sin. We could be certain that if some form of sin is not involved in our request, all we need to do is watch and see God at work in the answer. When all the specifics of this servant’s prayer were answered, he bowed down and worshipped the Lord. He praised the Lord, the God of his master Abraham. But he also thanked the Lord on his own behalf, as he said, “As for me”. The key here is not only in our prayer and not only watching the Lord answer, but in the praising of his name for the answer. Could it be sufficient to simply praise him in our spirit? It appears the servant bowed down. This would indicate he showed signs of his praise in the physical, in the presents of Rebekah. We should be praising God publically for his answers to prayer. There is also in one more point that strikes us here. This servant did not spent days, weeks or months praying the same prayer over and over again for the success of his mission. When the time was right and he was in the right place, he prayed and God answered while he was still in prayer. We know there seems to be enough evidence that we should be persisted in prayer. Yet if we examine all these verses we might find something else then a teaching about praying for the exact same thing over and over again. What we might find in the fact we should not give up praying about everything. That is to say, we should not give up on prayer. We should not go on living our own lives without consulting God in prayer each and every day about every aspect of our lives. But at the same time expecting the answer to arrive even in the midst of our prayer. If we continue to ask him for the exact same thing day in and day out does that mean we are not really expecting him to answer or at least we are not watching for the answer? Would then our prayers be not much more than a routine, a rut, searching the same without any answer? There is also enough evidence to believe that when we pray we need to believe and that God will give us whatever we pray about in the name of Jesus. This might be a fine line, in not giving up until we see the answer and asking, watching, believing and thanking him for the answer. But we cannot help to notice God answered while this servant was still in prayer. Why would he want us to wait, when he is going to answer anyway? Could it be we really do not expect him to answer right away? If we ask a friend or relative a question, and they tell us to wait or keep asking that question every day until they decide to answer it, how would be feel? Even reverse those roles and a friend asks us, and we tell them just keep asking until we decide they have asked enough then we will answer. We just do not do that, nor does our God. It is rather simple, Ask and answered.