“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).

What if you are someone’s answered prayer even though yours feel unanswered?

You’ve probably heard the first part of that statement before—that you might be the answer to someone’s prayer. After all, we know that God often works through other people to provide help, guidance, strength or inspiration.

But it’s the second part of that statement that we need to think more intentionally about. What if you being in that very same situation was actually the answer to someone else’s prayer for help, guidance, strength or inspiration? 

Imagine being in a challenging workplace. The boss and your co-workers are difficult. There are nights when you lie awake because of it. You pray to God to change something. 

While there you meet some other people who are also struggling. After work one evening someone discloses to you that they are at the end of their rope. They are out of hope. That’s when you thoughtfully and graciously share something about your faith. 

Twenty years later that person tells you that your words on that night after work had been the turning point of their life? They had been praying for someone to help—someone who turned out to be you!—while you just so happened to be praying to God to get you out of there. 

Today’s devotional isn’t meant to justify bad situations. It’s simply an invitation to think bigger about God and the kinds of things he can do. 

In the verse I quoted earlier from 2 Thessalonians, Paul thanks God for his fellow Christians. He is thankful not only because of their faith, but because their increased faith is resulting in increased love for one another. 

What if you are someone’s answered prayer even though yours feel unanswered?

Keep praying, keep serving, keep going. God is doing more than what first meets the eye, and he may just be doing it through you.

Notes:

-“Being someone’s answered prayer when yours feel unanswered.” Click here. Sermon.

-Bible quotes are from the ESV.