Our family went to Hershey Park for a weekend getaway a few years ago. If you’ve gone before, you know that they have Hershey characters that also act as tools to determine a child’s height so they know what kind of ride they can go on. As we approached the Hershey characters, Chloe was too short to ride on the big rollercoasters. She was pretty disappointed but undaunted. She said, “I’m going to pray and ask God to help me grow tall enough to ride the big rollercoasters!”

The following day, we got up and ate our breakfast. We went to the ticket counter to get our wristbands, which would confirm our size and what coasters we could ride. Wouldn’t you know it? Chloe just made the official measurement for riding the big coasters! She was so excited to ride the big rides that God answered her prayer. There are few things better than having the faith of a child when it comes to praying to God!

Does God answer prayer? Yes! God does. Is God’s answer always what we want? No, it is not. There are four basic answers to our prayer requests. They are “Yes,” “No,” “Not Yet,” and “What are you doing to do about it?”

When we pray, there are times when God answers the prayer as we hoped. In those cases, our prayer conformed to God’s will and desire. There are also times when God says, “No.” This is a valid answer to prayer (especially if God is more than a cosmic vending machine). We may hear the answer “no” for various reasons, which we will begin discussing this Sunday. God also says, “not yet,” because God’s timing is perfect. We may want something now, but God knows that we need it more in the future. Finally, when we pray, God often asks, “What are you doing to do about it?” We are the body of Christ and have been gifted and tasked to participate in God’s Kingdom here on earth. There are many times when we pray for a miracle when God has called us to be the miracle that someone needs.

Does God answer prayer? Yes! Those answers to prayer come in more forms than a ‘yes.’ Let us trust God through our prayers because we know that God cares for us.