When God Answers Prayer - "Stay."

Listening is hard. Listening is especially hard when being told to do something that doesn't quite line up with the plans in my head.

There are a million and one ways this applies to life. The aspect I’m writing about today is listening to God’s answer to prayer. Prayer, to me, is two-fold. First, I talk to God; then I listen for an answer. The answers are not always audible but they are spoken in one way or another. And that’s the hard part. I believe God answers prayer through his Word, through his people, through circumstances, and yes, sometimes in a way we can actually hear an answer.

I’ve physically heard God’s answer to my prayer a handful of times. The most recent time I received this sort of answer was a little bit over a year ago. I did NOT like His one-word answer. It honestly made me mad and maybe a little bit confused. Looking back, listening to that answer has positioned me to be exactly where I needed to be to find the strength and support I needed to get through my crazy summer.

But let’s take a step back and figure out what in the world I am talking about. Last summer, we were “church shopping”. Again. It wasn’t where I wanted to be nor what I wanted to be doing. The church we had been at for a good three years (I think) had a pastoral change in the midst of covid. That change in and of itself wasn’t really the reason we were church shopping, though it did play a part. I was super involved in the church, had these amazing plans for the kid’s ministry that were so, so stinkin’ close to happening, and then I felt led to ask my husband a question. A simple question: “Do you think we should try to find a church closer to our home?” And an immediate and emphatic “Yes!” were the only things I needed to hear to know I needed to let the other church leaders know we were going to be leaving that church. It broke my heart, but I knew my husband was right. We were no longer cultivating strong relationships like we had when we first attended. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. We were just physically not-that-close and had zero interest shown when we would try hosting a small group at our house. One of our favorite aspects of being in a good church is having a close small group—essentially a mini church to be a part of.

At this same time (late summer/early fall of 2020), our school district had asked parents to drive their children to school if at all possible. I half complied. I was dropping them off in the mornings, then going for a little jog or driving aimlessly for a short bit. It was an easy way to personally process what I was going through. We tried a couple churches, then came back to a church that we had previously left. Why? This church is literally less than two miles down the road from our house. You can’t get much closer without living in the parsonage!

Anyway, one morning I was driving down the road, radio off, spilling my heart to God. I wasn’t happy, I didn’t understand why he wanted me to leave a church where so many good things had been happening, I had been happy and comfortable, and this church we had returned to had soooo many messy issues behind the scenes. (Spoiler: All churches do. Every. single. one.) I drove in silence, listening for an answer and I heard one word. “Stay.”

Staying was not what I wanted to do. We had already tried another church that was pretty close, but that one was a definite no-go from all six of us. The church we have stayed at is a great fit for us. We weren’t so sure with the first interim pastor that was there. I can honestly say I nearly walked out of the church not once, but twice, due to the way he was treating and speaking to the congregation from the pulpit. If you know me, this is insane and not something I would think of doing. Ever. That made it really, really hard to follow through with God’s answer of “Stay.”

The second interim pastor we experienced, who is now officially the lead pastor (Yay!) was much different. He and his wife are the sweetest people and I’m excited to continue getting to know them better. There are also families similar to ours, many of whom have kids near our kids’ ages, and we are in a small group that we enjoy.

We missed some of the messy behind the scenes stuff just from the timing of our attendance, but we can see the fallout. Even through the mess, it’s easy to see now that God wanted us to be in this church and this small group for my own benefit. In our small group alone, there are two other women that have walked through a cancer diagnosis, and there are others in the church that know exactly what my husband and I have and are currently going through. I have no doubt that these are some of the prayer warriors that have prayed me through my roughest times over the last several months.

Staying has been the best thing we have done for our family.

Do you have an answered prayer story? I’d love to read it in the comments!