Love Your Enemies?

I have recently experienced the joy of having prayer after prayer answered with a “yes.†It feels wonderful to know God is listening as I cry out to Him and to know He cares enough to give me things I ask for. But what about those times when we pray and pray and never get the response we want? Is God still with us? Does He still care?

When I pray and things don’t work out the way I want them to, it’s easy for me to feel alone. Sometimes I feel like I have to figure things out by myself, like no one is going to help me. It can be hard to remember God is with me always—in the good times and the not-so-good times.

So, I turn to God’s Word. The Bible tells us over and over again that God is with us always and He will not let us be lost. I lean on those promises, knowing that just because I don’t get what I want doesn’t mean God is ignoring me or doesn’t care. God never changes, and He never breaks His promises. He is at work even when I don’t see it.

It can be hard to pray and then have things work out differently than we wanted them to, but God is still with us and He is still in control. When we get discouraged, we can look back at all the times we have seen His faithfulness before, and we can rest in the knowledge that He
loves us always. • Emily Acker

• When have you seen God answer your prayer with a “yesâ€? How can
those times encourage you when you feel like God isn’t listening?

• Sometimes, God’s answer to our prayer is “no,†and we may never know why. But we do know He loves us and has a plan. What other truths about God can you cling to when you feel lost?

Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39 (NIV)

Read Verses:

Matthew 5:43-48