Years ago, when I was working in Washington, DC, I participated in an intercessory prayer group that met once a week during our lunch break. It was an ecumenical group with folks from various backgrounds, women and men, black and white. That group enabled me to be comfortable with praying in public, trusting God to give me the words to say when they are needed. As I’ve mentioned before in “Threads of Grace”, one day a woman was thanking the Holy One for being “a prayer-answering God”. That phrase got my attention and has stayed with me over the years because that has always been my experience. It seems to me that is Jesus’ message to his disciples in today’s gospel when he gave them that “parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

Throughout our spiritual journey, we discover that God’s timing in responding to our prayers is not our desired timing—yet, in retrospect, it turns out to be perfect timing for all concerned. Likewise, while God’s answers may not be what we may have expected or hoped for, they are always for our benefit and for those around us and turn out to be far more beneficial than we could have desired or prayed for. Sometimes the Beloved’s answers may come as teaching moments: for example, when we pray for patience, we tend to get opportunities to develop patience rather than merely being infused with patience.

What is your experience with our prayer-answering God? As your reflect on your life, can you see times where the Holy One answered your prayer in surprising ways? Recognizing that sometimes the answer may be “No” or “Not yet”, has your experience, even so, encouraged you to continue to “pray always and not to lose heart”?