Genesis 24:21 (ESV)
21 The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the LORD had prospered his journey or not.
Our Response to God’s Answers to Prayer
In the above verse we read a response to a prayer offered earlier to God. Abraham’s servant was sent on a mission to seek a wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac. He arrived at the location Abraham sent him and prayed a specific prayer to know who it was God would want to marry Issac. Here is the prayer:
Genesis 24:13-14 (ESV)
13 Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”
He had barely finished the prayer and a beautiful, young woman named Rebecca came to offer him and his camels water. This was not only a prayer and an answer it was a specific prayer with an immediate and exact answer. Think about that in regard to our own prayers and answers. Do we have faith to ask specific, detailed prayers? Does God answer them immediately in the way we prayed them? The answer to both these question is probably, no!
They above verse is the servants first response to Rebecca’s watering him and his camels. It says, “the man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.” At first blush this seems a bit lacking in faith. Did he not just pray that? Did God not immediately answer that? But, the man was not sent to find a woman who would water his camels. The man was sent by Abraham to find a woman to marry Isaac from the tribe of Abraham. When the servant asks Rebecca about where she was from and who’s family she was, this is what brought about a different response by the servant. When Rebecca told the servant of her family (and it was the family of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, Isaac’s mother), the servant then knew that God had caused his journey to be prosperous. He didn’t just find a beautiful young woman with a servant’s heart, he found that type of woman from the exact tribe and exact family he was sent to find. That brought about this response:
Genesis 24:26 (ESV)
26 The man bowed his head and worshiped the LORD.
When we pray we need to pray with exactness and with intentionality of what we are asking of God. We need to hold our rejoicing until we see the amazing sovereignty and grace of God in that answer. God wants to answer our prayers in mighty ways. There are there lessons we need to learn:
1. Pray according to God’s will. It was God’s will that the servant find someone for Issac from Abraham and Sarah’s tribe.
2. Pray with exactness and internationalists about what we want from God.
3. Watch and wait as God does what He does.
4. Bow and worship at God’s amazing answers to prayer.
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