My husband is truly a prayer warrior and has been a great example for me.  He’s always turned to God in thanksgiving, praise and times of pain and need.  He’s also the kind of guy who wants everyone else to know the power of God’s hand in our lives. If we are at a garage sale, visiting with the sellers, he will use the opportunity to ask them where they go to church and tell them about ours.

Paul is also an avid sportsman – though his treks through the woods have diminished over the past few years, because of an aging body that has endured cancer and a stroke.  In spite of that fact, this man is chock full of stories of his many adventures.

One of those stories emerged this past weekend.  On this particular occasion, his best friend called him with a request.  He was in the woods and had just injured a bear with his bow and arrow.  He asked Paul if he could join him in the search for the animal. and of course, Paul was there in a flash.

As the two men followed a trail of blood left by the wounded bear, Paul asked God to be with them in the hunt.  He asked that God would lead them to the animal so they could put it out of its misery.  He also wanted to help his friend. Sounds like a silly thing to pray for, but God doesn’t really put limitations on our requests.  In fact, He encourages us to come to Him in prayer for all things.

The hunt left both of these friends empty handed.  The bear lived to see another day, but Paul was concerned for the struggle it would suffer because of its injury.  Time went by – in fact another year elapsed – and bear hunting season was underway.  This time, Paul was present at the onset. When he killed the bear that day, it was not of his own doing.  The same bear that had been injured a year before, was the prize.  It was revealed when the broad head from his friend’s arrow was found in the shoulder of the bear.

So, God answered Paul’s prayer.  The animal had been granted another year of life and the two men continued to bind their friendship – a friendship that’s still alive and well today.

My point in this story is that sometimes we don’t get immediate answers from God.  Sometimes it seems that He isn’t listening, or He doesn’t care, or we aren’t important to him.  Sometimes we never witness the result of our prayers, because we are blinded by other things.  There are also times that we pray without expecting results.

We should be bold in our prayer lives, knowing that God answers every prayer – even the seemingly insignificant ones – on His timeline, in His way and for our good.

1 John 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”