04/24/2023
By Pastor Joe Romeo
"Answers to Prayers in the Midst of Non-Answers"
:“Lord, please give us a good day.” “Lord, please give us a good week. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” How often have you prayed that prayer, or something similar, as you embarked on a new day or a new week? In asking God to give us a good day or a good week, we all know what we mean—we want a trouble free day or a trouble free week.
But as you’ve probably figured out by this point in your life, what we define as a good week and what God defines as a good week do not always align.
Case in point: My family and I had been planning a short trip to New York City and Hershey, Pennsylvania for several months. A week before our trip, I got sick. Then the A/C died in our van. Then all three of our kids started to feel unwell. We were all quite disappointed, and we hadn’t even made it out of our driveway!
Despite the imperfect start to our week, we decided to head out on our vacation anyway. And we eventually made it to New York. Driving in the city was . . . how should I put this? . . . an experience—I’ll leave it at that.
Our time at Hershey Park was cut short due to a torrential downpour. Our kids were bummed.
Why do things like this happen? Sure, they’re not huge problems, but several challenging days in a row can wear us down. So again, why do things like this happen, especially when we pray and ask God to give us good days?
Throughout the week, my mind kept drifting to an article I had read by John Piper several years ago, titled “Answers to Prayer in the Midst of Non-Answers.”
I hope you enjoy it.
