Understanding the 40 Parables of Jesus Christ: Learn from the greatest teacher Jesus Christ. The gospel taught in stories.

Doubting After God Answers Your Prayers

Having God answer your prayers can result in overwhelming feelings of joy, relief, and thankfulness. However, sometimes doubt of God's intervention can appear and begin to steal your confidence.

When God answers our prayers, occasionally his intervention can be so miraculous that it defies what is normally possible. Such miracles include dramatic biblical accounts of healing, along with signs and wonders.

However, most of the time, our answered prayers result in small miracles that were always "possible," but were unlikely to happen.

Miracles of Perfect Timing

Miracles of perfect timing are when something normal happens at just the right time needed.

One example of a miracle of perfect timing is the story of the spider's web. While hiding from his pursuers, a man is saved by a spider weaving a web over the entrance of the hole where he is hiding.

A spider weaving a web over the entrance to a hideout is definitely possible, and in fact it is not that unusual. However, it is extremely coincidental that this event occurred after he hid yet before his pursuers arrived and considered searching within the hole. The pursues chose not to search within the hole due to the spider's web indicating to them that no one had entered recently.

It is said that, "With God a spider's web is like a stone wall, and without God a stone wall is like a spider's web."

This story is just an example, but miracles of perfect timing like this are possibly the most common kind of miracle.

The actual event that occurs is often not what is miraculous, but instead the timing of the event. A spider weaving a web is extremely ordinary, but the timing of the spider weaving its web is what creates the miracle.

Likewise, when we pray about a situation, the timing of the events that answer our prayers are what often create the miracles. God's timing is perfect, although it may feel late to those who like to be prepared.

Consider this: When you are prevented from achieving a goal that will result in devastating consequences from your failure, and you fall to your knees asking God to make a way, that is when something miraculous occurs to save the day. The miraculous event may have been something that was happening all along, but you were unaware of it. As far as you knew, the goal was unachievable but God had already made a way. You only became aware of it just after you asked for God's help.

As an example, consider a situation where you need to buy food to feed your family, but you have no money available to buy food (at no fault of your own). So, you pray to God to provide for your family, and suddenly there is a knock at the entrance to your home. You open the door to find no one there, but there is a week's worth of food sitting at the door. God has answered your prayer!

The person who bought the food may have planned to do so for awhile. They then had to purchase the food and deliver it. This all took time. Before you asked God to provide for your family, he was already answering your prayer. He may have been answering your prayer for several days, but you were unaware of it.

But at the moment when you realize you are in need and ask God for help, that is when your answer arrives. This type of situation can make you feel doubtful, because the situation was already being solved.

However, God is God of time - he sees the past and future. He knew you would ask for his help, and he delivered the answer at the moment you needed it even though he may have been preparing for your answered prayer long before you asked.

Remembering God's Miraculous Timing

Soon after your prayer has been answered, this is when doubt can settle in to steal your thankfulness and joy. After all, a spider spinning a web really is not that miraculous. A stranger buying food is unusual, but is also not too miraculous on its own. This moment is when it is important to remember that the timing of the event is what is miraculous.

These miracles of perfect timing are still miracles nonetheless, so don't let doubt sink in after God has made a way for you.

The answer to these prayers were events outside of your control, but God revealed that he has made a way at the exact moment when failure seems inevitable. Or in the case of the spider's web, God had a spider finish spinning a web at the exact moment when death would have been inevitable.

When God has saved the day, don't forget the extremely perfect and miraculous timing of the ordinary event that answers your prayer.