A friend recently sent me a Charles Spurgeon quote from a devotional book she was reading. It caught my attention, too. I think many of us slip easily into a mindset that says in effect, “I’ve prayed about this. Now it’s up to God to do the rest,” and we carry on, unmindful of the follow-up to our prayers.

“Without watchful expectation on our part, what is the sense of waiting on God for help? There will be no help without it. If we ever fail to receive strength and protection from Him, it is because we have not been looking for it. Heavenly help is often offered, yet goes right past us. We miss it because we are not standing in the tower carefully watching the horizon for evidence of its approach, and then are unready to throw the gates of our hearts open so it may enter. The person who has no expectations and therefore fails to be on the alert will receive little help. Watch for God in the events of your life.”

In our hurried lives, it is so easy to make our prayers routine and catalogued rather than specific and intentionally anticipating God’s response. Bruce and I have been doing much more specific praying in our fundraising time. He has been just awesome in how He answers when we least expect it. Each day, I wake with a sense of something new and unexpected, and then I so easily get caught up in the mundane things of life.

Lord, make me alert and mindful of Your responses to my prayers. I want to live so close to You that those responses will be part of my joy in knowing Your will and following You. Amen.

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