3 Simple Prayers, 3 Amazing Answers
Warning: These real-life stories could change how you think about praying simple, childlike prayers.
As you may (or may not) know, I’ve been republishing a lot of my Medium stories here on Substack. Yesterday, I decided to share "3 Simple Prayers That God Answered In An Amazing Way," a piece Koinonia published in late 2023.
I almost had it ready to send out by noon. But I just couldn’t get clear on what title to use, and I wasn’t satisfied with the introduction, so I walked away. Sometimes sleeping on a work-in-progress is the best thing you can do as a writer.
I’m so glad I did, because while drinking my morning smoothie and perusing Notes here, this caught my eye:
Have you ever considered God’s perspective when it comes to prayer? Has it ever occurred to you how much He delights in watching you, His child, be amazed when He answers your request? If
gets excited watching how her child responds to answered prayers, how much more our heavenly Father?Consider this:
Mere hours before going to the cross, in His farewell discourse with His 12 disciples, Jesus said,
Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24, ESV)
Have you ever read that verse and thought, Can this be true? It’s like He’s bending over backwards to make the point: Hey, I want to answer your prayers, and one reason is that I want you to be full of joy!
You might also be thinking, “Oh yes, Sharon. I know He wants me to pray. And I do. I pray about my job, health, family, church, and world events. Stuff like that.”
But what about small things? Have you ever asked God for something that seemed selfish or silly?
People who say they don’t want to bother God with the small stuff don’t understand that with God, the Creator of the Universe, and all that is in it, it’s all small stuff.
“Sovereign LORD, you made the earth and the sky by your great power and might; nothing is too difficult for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17, GNT)
So, the question isn’t can God do something; it’s will He?
And this brings me to the reason I’m writing this:
When it comes to my relationship with my Father God, I’m like a little child. I ask for all kinds of things — simply, yet boldly, and unashamedly.
And even after walking with Him for almost six decades now, He still surprises and humbles me with how willing He is to answer the simplest of my impromptu, sometimes outrageously audacious prayers.
Here are three examples. And yes, all of these things really happened!
“Lord, would you please send someone to mow our yard?”
In April of 2017, while working at Amazon (doing work he should never have attempted at his age!), my husband, David, developed low back pain with sciatica and had to go on crutches for a week.
Our front yard is small and doesn’t take long to cut. So, with him laid up, that little chore now fell to me.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t mow the grass. I could. But I didn’t want to.
And for good reason. My hands were full — driving David to the Chiropractor, cooking, cleaning, making grocery store runs, and helping him with things he would have typically done for himself.
So, Wednesday morning, as we were getting in the car to go to the Chiropractor, seeing the length of our grass, I silently prayed,
“Lord, would you please send someone to mow our yard?”
That was it. One sentence. One simple request.
When we returned, I remember thinking, Okay, I probably didn’t give Him enough notice (like He needs advance notice!), and that grass must be cut before it rains on Saturday.
So, by Friday morning, I was planning option B and wondering if I might mow the yard when we returned from the Chiropractor that afternoon.
But it wasn’t necessary. To my amazement and delight, a little later, as I walked to the driveway to open the car door for David, I saw that someone had mowed the grass.
I broke into a huge grin and exclaimed excitedly, “David, look! Someone mowed our yard!”
Needless to say, we had a little praise celebration while driving to town, thanking God for His goodness. Talk about being joy-filled!
“Father, please show this guy his blinker is on”
How many times have you been driving and noticed that someone has unknowingly left their turn signal on?
It’s not only annoying, it can be dangerous.
What do we do? Ignore it? Pull up next to them (if you can), wave, point, make signs, and pray you don’t have an accident while trying to tell them their blinker is on?
I’ve been driving for decades and have encountered this situation many times. But it wasn’t until recently that I even thought to ask God to let the driver know.
The first time it happened was in the spring while starting to overtake an old pickup truck. We were in the passing lane, and he was in the slow lane with his left turn signal blinking — and it was clear he wasn’t trying to turn left.
As we drove past, I prayed,
“Father, please show this guy his blinker is on.”
I am not exaggerating. As soon as we passed the guy and looked in the rearview mirror, the blinker was off. It happened that fast!
Coincidence, perhaps? Maybe.
But twice? Perhaps not.
A few weeks later, the same situation occurred. And again, I prayed,
“Father, please let this person know their blinker is on.”
And as quickly as before, the blinker stopped.
I know. I’m amazed, too!
“Father, will You please heal my ear?”
A few years ago, at a time when I was struggling with severe insomnia, I was awakened around 3:00 AM one morning out of a solid sleep.
For some odd reason, my right ear was “crackling.” (It sounded like someone was crumpling a piece of plastic inside my ear.)
I tried rolling over. I tried drinking water. I semi-loudly but firmly said, “Noise cease! Ear be open!”
I asked the Lord for wisdom and prayed in my prayer language (tongues). After about 30 minutes of all of the above with NO change, I got quiet for a few minutes, then asked simply,
“Father, will You please heal my ear?”
Almost instantly, the crackling stopped.
Initially, I was stunned. I thought: Dare I move my head? Slowly, I turned it to the left, then to the right — nothing but wonderful silence.
A few moments later, I was overcome with emotion and gratitude as I realized what had just happened. God had healed my ear!
That was over four years ago, and other than a brief reoccurrence that went away quickly, I’ve not had any other issues with either ear.
Thank You, Jesus!
I shared these stories with you not to impress you but to impart this into your thinking: Nothing is too big or too small for God.
He cares about every detail of your life.
So, bring it all to Him — all your concerns, questions, and dilemmas, and yes, even things that annoy you or might seem silly.
Be bold, but not presumptuous or demanding. Just ask Him as clearly and concisely as you can what you want Him to do for you (or someone else).
And when you do, don’t be surprised when He answers speedily your simple, childlike request in amazing fashion.
Why? Because He’s God and that’s what He does!
You have His Word on it! 🤗
For more about prayer and the role it played in helping me through one of the most challenging times of my life, check out my previous post:
What do you think? Have you ever prayed a seemingly silly prayer and God answered? Leave me a comment, or, if you’re reading this via email, simply reply.
Fascinating to read of such experiences Sharon. As a youth I had a silver St Christopher my mother gave to me to ‘keep me safe’ on my travels. She prayed for me, I looked out for myself. I’ve come close to losing my life three times at sea. I guess the fact I’m still here says something. I never wore that St Christopher, but I kept it with me, my mother never knew different. It was lost years ago when my boat was wrecked. Did her prayers save me? Did God save me? I don’t believe so. But she did. I’ll not be praying for anything, but it pleases me that others do.
“Okay, I probably didn’t give Him enough notice (like He needs advance notice!), and that grass must be cut before it rains on Saturday”
I have found it’s not about giving Father enough notice, but about the person He has to get from point A to B.
I always pray for a parking spot when I leave the house. I have in my mind which spot I want. Timing is everything because the poor unsuspecting person parked where I want to be is in the middle of doing whatever it is they are doing. Suddenly, something shifts in them and they have an internal battle on their hands regarding dropping what they are doing to leave. It takes time for that individual to leave the premises, walk to their car and drive out just before I get there. It works every time.
Thank you for your story, it made me smile in agreement.