I occasionally purchase oatmeal and I would request they add brown sugar. They would place the sugar on the top and I mixed it in. One day after I purchased the oatmeal and went to eat it upon arrival at work, I noticed that the sugar was missing.
I became annoyed and then was about to add white sugar (because that was all I had at work) to the oatmeal.
Just before I did I decided to stir the oatmeal in case the sugar was in the bottom of the cup. When I stirred it, up came the sugar.
Not trying to super spiritualize this situation however I learned a few things about faith from my experience.
Sometimes when we pray we feel our prayers have not been answered because we do not see what we asked for when we expect or how we expect.
Our Reactions
- mistakenly assume God is not listening or does not care about us
- complain that what He tells us in his word is not true
- make poor decisions due to impatience
- act in haste to our detriment
The sugar was always there, it just was not readily apparent on first view.
It is not that our prayers have not been answered. We may just need to stir up our faith and expect His answers. Not necessarily the answer when and how we expect to receive it.