Answers

         To the man who says, "God doesn't listen", I would say, "Hang on a minute". Maybe He doesn't give a yes or no answer, maybe He doesn't give you exactly what you want, and maybe He doesn't even answer the question that you asked. He does answer though. I saw something the other day that said, "If you keep waiting for God to answer you, maybe you should stop only listening for 'yes'." Recently, I've been asking for answers and kept getting nothing. Honestly, I was asking for selfish things that are back home, but they were things that I felt were important. Most people will agree with me that when you are asking for something that seems important to you, and you feel that God isn't answering you, it can be frustrating. I was frustrated. James tells us to "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (James 1:2-5). I've been ignoring James the past few days. I had absolutely no joy. I kept praying and asking for these things, and was wondering why I was getting no answer. Then God answered. He didn't say "yes" or "no". He didn't not even give me an answer for what I had been praying for. He one upped me. Today God gave Suzy Peacock clean water that has no disease in it. Today God gave us food that we can take to Turkana, Mt. Elgon, and many other places. Today God gave our high school an electronic library that we've been working on for months. In a way I feel that the Lord did answer me. He said, "Come on man. You've got a lot of more important things to do. What would you rather have? Food, water, and education for these kids, or your selfish stuff?" Basically, I was only listening for the answer that I wanted, so God showed me something that I couldn't ignore. Jesus tells us, "Ask and you shall receive" (Luke 11:10). Notice, He doesn't say, "Ask and you shall get whatever you want. I hear that new F-150 is looking pretty good." Now I'm not saying that God won't give us the things that we want. I'm not even saying that we shouldn't ask for these things, but I do believe that we have to have an understand that we might not always get the answer that we want.