A Lesson From a Doe

“May my prayer be set before you like incense;

    may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”

Psalm 141:2

 

 

I used to run several miles, several days a week.

(Those who know me now, stop laughing, it’s true!)

I recall one day out on my run and I was nearing a spot on the canal path where the trail crosses a rural road.

As I approached the road I heard some rustling in some bushes and instantly was just a couple feet away from a large doe.

I don’t know which of us was more startled but we both continued on.

Neither of us seemed interested in pausing to ‘savor’ the moment.

I wanted to take full advantage of the adrenaline rush the sudden encounter afforded me.

So when a motorist on the road asked me: “Did you see that doe?”

I simply shook my head “yes” but kept running.

We have been talking about prayer lately and I was reminded of this incident as I considered what it is like to have prayers answered.

When your will and your prayers line up with God’s will – look out!

That is the moment we experience the ‘adrenaline rush’ of answered prayer.

Often we pray selfish prayers that are more self-centered than God-centered.

But when we move beyond the “I need, I need, I want, I want, Gimme, Gimme” prayers,

and ask God what He wants, we can expect the wind at our back,

the adrenaline rush that catapults us forward.

It is then that we see His power at work in our lives accomplishing His will.

It is then that we experience answered prayer!