Being an Answer to Prayer

I must admit in my unbelief I did not have high hopes that anyone in my neighborhood would respond to the invitations I gave out letting them know of a Christianity Explored study in my home. Christianity Explored is a 10-week study in the Gospel of Mark that addresses three basic questions: who Jesus is, what He did, and what that means to them. At first I didn’t hear anything. Then after a couple of weeks, I received one email telling me they’d like to attend, then another, then another asking if they could bring a friend. We started with six neighbors plus my wife and myself. As people got into it, they asked if they could invite others. We built from 6 to 8 to 9 and leveled off at ten. For some, they had never been part of a Bible study before.

Several weeks into the study, I received an email from the brother of one of the participants. He commented on how his sister was enjoying the time and then he said this: “I have been a Christian for 20 years now and have been praying for my family that whole time to give their lives to Christ and this seems to be a big answer.”

He thanked me “for being there and for [my] obedience to following God’s lead.” While his words were very meaningful to me and a wonderful encouragement from God, they were just trickle added to the river of blessing I was receiving by God in getting to know these neighbors and being a conduit for Christ in their lives.

How humbling it is to think of our being an answer to others’ prayers! Yet should that surprise us? After all, it is not angels that God uses to reach our neighbors with the gospel of life in Christ. How urgent it is that we prove faithful to our call. Just as we might pray for unbelieving family and friends, asking God to raise up influences for Christ in their lives, so we might find ourselves that answer to the same prayer by others.