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May 03, 2022 18:00pm

Faith TALK: After Prayer is Answered

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

Focus Verse: “You are my strong shield, and I trust you completely. You have helped me, and I will celebrate and thank you in song.” – Psalm 28:7

T-Talk About It Topic

To get your family thinking about “giving thanks”, compile a list (somewhere visible in the house) of things you are thankful for.

As Christians, it is important for us to be thankful for God’s intervention in our lives because not only does God want a thankful attitude from His children, he blesses us for it! In the past few weeks we have looked at 2 different times to thank the Lord: Before He has answered a prayer and during tough times in life. In the Bible, when people were quick to give thanks to Him under these circumstances, God moved in their lives in miraculous ways. This week, we are talking about two different ways God answers prayer…and the different ways we can respond.

A-Anchor To The Bible

In Exodus 14, God answered a big prayer – a prayer to save His people. It all began with God sending 10 plagues to Egypt to get Pharaoh to let His people go; after the 10th and final plague, Pharaoh did just that…until he realized that he had just released all of Egypt’s slaves and decided to go after them. By the time they caught up, the Israelites were at a dead end: the Red Sea. That is when Moses assured them to not be afraid, be still, and watch God fight for them. Moses lifted up his rod, and suddenly, a strong wind blew back the water creating a dry path in between for them to cross. As soon as the last of the Israelites made it to the other side, the waters collapsed upon Pharaoh’s army – not one of them remained alive! After this amazing miracle and answered prayer, Moses created a song of praise celebrating God – who He is, and what He had just done for them. He taught this psalm to the Israelites; they sang it, praising their God. Then, the Israelite women got our their tambourines and started dancing, singing praises to the Lord! The really cool part about this? The women, in their rush to leave Egypt, purposely packed their instruments. (Could it be possible they were expecting something big from God to celebrate in advance?) Writing a special thank-you psalm (or poem), dancing, and celebrating were ways the Israelites showed their gratitude to the Lord. These are great ways we can celebrate answered prayer as well – writing a special thank you prayer/poem to the Lord, reading it to Him, and even giving a verbal “Thank you, Jesus!” are all great ways to honor God for answering our prayers!

Not all answered prayers cause celebrations and dancing; sometimes, they come with pain and tears. You see, God promised a Savior to the world in the Old Testament. He fulfilled that promise in Mary, a young virgin, who became the mother of His Son, Jesus. When Jesus began his ministry, he saved, he healed, he taught, and he loved. For years, Jews wanted and prayed for a Savior to save them from their persecutors, and now, they thought Jesus was that man…until he was crucified. Many believers’ hearts were broken by watching the answer to their prayers being tortured and killed. Much confusion and many tears came in the hours afterward. They didn’t understand how God could let this pain happen; they couldn’t see His goodness in this situation. We can be the same, too. When prayers aren’t answered the way they think they should be, we can a few days later, Jesus began to reveal himself as the resurrected Savior, and people began to see God’s bigger plan: Jesus had to die to give them life. The pain was part of the answer to the answer to the prayer; Jesus’ sacrifice had to happen to birth good for everyone. When prayers don’t get answered the way we want, trusting God and finding things to still be thankful for are beautiful expressions of answered prayer.

L-Learn God’s Word

Answered prayers can look very different; either way, God promises to be our strength and our shield in Psalm 28:7. We just need to trust Him with the outcome of our answered prayer…and thank Him for His strength and help along the way.

K-Keep Each Other Accountable

Here are a few ideas to keep everyone in check wit this week’s TALK:

Talk about some answered prayers your family has had – the good ones and the tough ones. Add these answered prayers to your Thankful list! Focus on the answered prayers that were tough…can you and your people see any good in what came from them? Romans 8:28 is a beautiful promise when there is much pain and tears in some of our answered prayers. Trusting God will give us the strength to face the tougher answered prayers. (Psalm 28:7)

Motivate each other to memorize our focus verse this week. Write the verse on a chalkboard and display it by the door. Have them say the verse each morning and initial they did so.