Is God Hearing Your Prayers? Why He’s Still Working Even When Nothing Seems to Change

Hey.

Hey, friends.

Today we are talking about every prayer you pray makes a difference.

You may not see it now, you may not even see it in your lifetime, but every prayer you pray, God is moving.

So that's what we're going to dig into today.

Hey, I'm Kristen.

Welcome back to Faithfield Living.

I'm so glad you've joined me today, and I can't wait to share today's episode with you.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Living, the podcast for women who want to find joy again, grow closer to God, and rediscover the woman he created you to be.

I'm your host, Kristin Fritch.

Each week you'll find encouragement, honest conversations, biblical perspective, and practical tools to help you experience more joy, purpose, and peace in everyday life.

Because the woman God created you to be is still there.

And it's never too late to come alive to the life he created you to live.

Woo.

Here we go.

All right, so here is what's so cool.

I was listening to something the other day, and I'm going to share what it was in a minute.

But the person speaking explained that she used to think that when you prayed, it was kind of like the more you prayed, it filled a prayer bucket.

And kind of once it was filled, maybe God would answer your prayer.

That was just her saying that.

That was my old understanding of prayer, which I don't know exactly where she got it from, but I think a lot of us can relate to the concept, which is this.

Sometimes we pray, and we might pray for the same thing over and over, maybe for days, weeks, sometimes years.

Sometimes people pray for the same thing for decades.

And we might wonder, why isn't God answering my prayer?

And of course, there's so many reasons why we might not think he's answering our prayer, meaning we may not see the miracle.

It may not have come yet.

It may not be the right time.

Or he could be doing something else even greater, like it's coming, right?

Or he could be doing something even greater for his glory.

But we don't see it yet because we're going through a circumstance or a season that that's hard, right?

That's a real struggle.

But it doesn't mean God's not there.

And it doesn't mean God isn't still doing things for his good, but also for your good.

But anyways, so the reason that I brought up that woman in the prayer and then a bucket is because then she explained she has this very vivid dream, you know, or a vision, and she basically explained that in her dream or vision that she saw a chessboard, and that basically on the chessboard were kind of like visuals for the different parts of her life.

And then in her.

We'll just say dream, she's praying about one of the pieces on the board, which is an area of her life.

And she said, and as she prays for one of the things, she sees the chessboard light up and she sees the pieces on the board start moving.

Well, here's what's so cool.

The whole point of that dream was to show her, I am working.

You might not see me working, you may not see me moving in your life, but I am.

Because often God's timeline, right?

And his.

The way he lines things up is not usually our timeline or at least the way we expect something to happen.

And so I thought it was just a really cool visual, which is this.

Every prayer God is moving, every prayer God hears, and every prayer, he is making moves in your life.

And the main thing is we have to look back to see where God's already answered prayers in our lives, because when we do, we'll know he's going to answer other prayers, especially, I mean, if they're aligned with his will.

But it's just, I think so many times we can get feel.

We can feel defeated.

Like we pray and we don't really know did something happen or not.

In other words, we don't want to miss what God's doing in our lives.

And I like, oh, sorry.

So the first thing is the woman I just mentioned, her talking about the chessboard was Toni Gilbert.

She was the one talking about every prayer you pray counts.

And then I like what Pastor Preston Morrison says.

And he says, don't miss what God wants to do today in your life, because we're not seeing it right.

We are expecting God to move in a certain way on something.

And when it happens differently, sometimes we can miss it.

He says the prayer that you're.

You're asking God for or the answer.

He says, it may not happen the way you expected, but your king is moving the pieces just like her chessboard, right?

How good is that?

And then here's a scripture to.

To reinforce this.

For I am about to do something new.

See, I have already begun.

Do you see it?

I will make a pathway, pathway through the wilderness.

I will create rivers and the dry wasteland.

God is telling you he is going to do something new.

And he asks you, do you see it?

I've already begun.

We have to believe him that he is working and Moving.

And we don't always know how, but he is.

It's much like divine timing, divine assignments.

When we're open and willing, God will put us in places, he will position us with people, he'll put us in rooms, he'll put us on airplanes, he'll put us in the coffee shop where we have an opportunity to show up, to be kind to someone else, to help them, possibly to love on them, to be the encouragement that they needed.

There are so many stories of this.

So if you struggle to think of your own, then read a book.

I have lots of recommendations that will encourage you in your faith and that we are here to be part of God's timing and his miracles.

And I like.

So I was listening to something by.

It's Milk and Honey Ranch there in Texas.

And the dad, he's.

He does a lot of you.

I'm sorry, Instagram reels.

And he was talking about, you have to keep believing in God, okay?

Which is this whole idea.

We need to pray to God and believe him for the prayers, that they're coming, the prayers will be answered in some way.

We also have to keep believing God for doing what we're asking him to do.

And so this gentleman at Milk and Honey Ranch, he has a family that.

He and his family run this ranch.

And he was basically sharing that his daughter had asked to go to this place hiking in maybe Utah.

I forget the name of it.

Let me see.

No, I don't have it written down.

But basically they just decide, okay, honey, I'm gonna.

We're gonna do this.

He'd asked his daughter.

They were gonna take a trip.

I don't remember why, but so they, I think they flew.

So they book a flight, they go to Utah, and they're gonna go to this park, you know, like a national park.

And they.

They're going to go hiking, but they're hoping to get to do this specific hike.

But it's a lottery system because so many people want to do it.

It's just like a breathtaking place that until they got there, you have to be there.

In other words, because the lottery, you know, they just kind of rotate it each day, but you're not.

You wouldn't be able to get there in time.

Like if you found out the day before, two days before, you wouldn't be able to get there in time.

If you were somewhere else, you have to kind of be there.

So they knew, you know, when they were going to be considered to the lottery.

So they go hiking.

The first day they show up and like nothing is going right.

He's explaining the story.

First of all, they missed their first flight.

I mean it's.

Sorry, their first flight's canceled.

Second flight's delayed.

Delayed, delayed.

So anyways, long and short of it is instead of getting in during the day, they don't get until really late at night.

And then they have to go to their campsite and the dad doesn't even pack properly.

Like he doesn't have the clothes for freezing cold nights.

You know, he just, I think he wasn't thinking about it.

And it was, it was a, I don't know if it was a last minute trip, but it was not a really far out planned trip.

So everything's kind of not looking up for them.

And then the next morning they find out that they did not get picked for the lottery.

Oh, I think it's called Angel's Landing is what they were trying to do.

So they're kind of bummed.

But the daughter, the whole time is having still this really great attitude and she's like, it's okay, dad, we'll just go do these other hikes and we'll have a great time.

Right?

Because she really loved the outdoors.

So earlier in the day they had seen a, I think it was an older woman and she was sitting and the dad asked her, hey, would you like me to take your picture?

You know, with that nice scenic background?

So he did.

And they are talking to her and that was it.

They just go on their, their way, go on about their day.

And then later they see the same woman and she's on, she's kind of at the path where they're going on this hike and they start, you know, talking again because they had met before and you know, they chit chat a little bit.

And then she says to them, oh, are you guys doing Angel Landing that, you know, the other hike?

And they go, oh, well, you know, we would have but we, we didn't get into the lottery.

And she says, oh, well, I have two extra tickets that to go, why don't you come with us?

Me and my group come with us to do it.

And they're like, what?

Okay.

So then they ended up getting to do the hike, meeting new people and like it worked out perfectly, but it was all in God's timing because at any point, if they had given up, like if they had said, oh, the flights aren't working out, we don't even know if we have a ticket, let's just cancel the trip.

Or if they had gotten there and they hadn't just gone about their day and, you know, done a kind thing for this lady, took her picture.

They didn't make small talk.

They would have never talked to that woman, or she wouldn't have decided to be inclined to ask them if they were going to Angel's Landing.

And that divine timing wouldn't have happened.

So even when you think things aren't going your way, even when things aren't quite working out, when things are taking longer than you think, God is lining things up.

He is lining things up in your life.

But one, you have to show up, you have to take action.

And then you need to not worry about how he's going to do it or when he's going to do it.

Just keep showing up, keep serving, keep loving, keep believing him for the things that you're moving towards and that you're wanting.

Now, obviously, that story, if they hadn't gotten to go on Angels Landing, it would have been okay.

You know, it wasn't a huge thing, but it was a memorable thing, and it was a thing a father and a daughter got to do together, and that they then got to be connected and have this divine timing and see God orchestrate something that they could never have orchestrated on their own.

Right.

Talk about building your faith.

So once again, don't miss that.

God is moving the pieces on your board all the time.

In every prayer you pray is lighting up your life.

He hears you, he listens, and he is moving in all of our lives.

He's orchestrating all of it.

And yes, sometimes we won't see a prayer answered in the way we want.

Sometimes our circumstance is not going to change.

Our diagnosis is not going to change.

Our loss is not going to change.

But in all of it, there is still goodness and good things, and prayer still might be answered, but we don't really understand all of eternity, you know, and then sometimes prayers are answered.

It's our deepest, like prayer, like, even more than what we actually think we're praying for.

Maybe we're praying for something to do with our family, but we say it really specifically.

But maybe it's a generation from now that the prayer's answered.

We don't know.

We do not always know.

But God is in it.

I have already begun.

Do you see it?

And even in the wilderness, where there's dry wasteland, there is no water.

He is going to create and send the rivers through.

Imagine what he can do in your life.

So, friends, I don't know about you, but this excited me.

And just thinking about that every time I pray, something lights up that, you know, I don't know, but I think more of us.

I remember years ago watching that movie the Prayer Room.

And what was kind of cool about it was I remember the one actress says she's talking about faith.

And I don't remember the exact quote, but it's basically like, oh, you're just.

You're kind of like Luke lukewarm in your faith.

But the idea is we want to become red hot.

In other words, we don't want to just be mediocre Christians.

And don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to put my hand up to say I could do a better job.

I could.

You know, I pray and I get in the Word and all that.

But what I'm saying is I could be a more passionate Christian sometimes, or I could get more excited in thinking about every time I pray, like, holy cow, what is actually happening.

And hearing stories like these people shared and their own testimony or their dream, that excites me.

Reading the Bible and hearing somebody describe it new way, that excites me because it lets me build my faith.

It lets me remember and be reminded of just how big and powerful and almighty and all knowing our God is.

And so I don't know about you today, but today what I needed is to be encouraged that every prayer I speak shifts something in the spiritual realm.

It shifts something in my life.

It shifts something in the world.

And I will end on this idea, which is even science has now shown us what the Bible's always told us, which is this prayer changes.

I'm sorry, prayer is in the spiritual realm, but it changes things in the physical realm.

And what I mean by that is this.

They've shown where people were praying, even meditative prayer for other people in a different room that don't know when they're praying or not.

And their brain images changed.

Sometimes people were healed when people even not in the same space were praying.

They even did a study where they had people do meditative thinking.

It might have been prayer, I don't recall.

In this case in Washington D.C. and they studied the crime.

I don't know if it was like the minute by minute or hourly crime stats before these people did this session.

And then they studied it while it was happening and after.

And while they had this whole group of people, you know, like basically having good thoughts or praying over the city, you know, and whatnot.

The statistics on crime went down and, and so what I'm saying to you is prayer is so powerful and I think sometimes we.

We see it as something commonplace because we can, I should say, because we do it, we hear about it so much that we forget it is supernatural, that it is connecting us to the divine.

And it happens in ways we're not gonna always understand or see or know.

So I just wanna share this with you today.

I hope that you were able to take something from this.

I hope that it lets you keep believing in God, and I hope it reminds you that God is always working in our lives, but we don't want to miss it.

And that every prayer you pray is shifting something in the world and most often shifting something even in your life or your.

You know, your realm, if you will.

So that's it.

I can't wait to share next episode with you.

But until next time, have a great week.

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