God is always teaching us. If we’re eager for it, he’ll show us all kinds of things. If we’re ambivalent or worse yet, antagonistic, he’ll still show us all kinds of things. Either way, he’s going to teach. It’s just that if we want to learn, it’s going to be pleasant. If not, getting educated will be difficult.

Any way we look at it, God is Teacher of the Year, the Decade, the Century, and of all time. He’s got eternity covered, too. Problems result only on the student side, and we can certainly be stubborn pupils, especially when the lessons are advanced.

One subject in our Teacher’s curriculum is so difficult, it’s included in his curriculum every year. It’s based on a question: why doesn’t he always say “yes” to our prayers?

For instance, if a friend is injured in an accident after we’ve prayed for safety, we might need a refresher course entitled, “Our God Hears.” When we learn of children being harmed, we might need new instruction in a class called, “Our God Sees.” If a family member gets cancer as Mary has, we might need to re-register for, “Our God Heals.”

Let’s face it. No matter how many lessons we’ve learned in God’s school, once in a while we raise our hand and say, “Is this injury/damage/disease absolutely necessary?”

Though he has the answer, he’s not required to give it. Sometimes, though, he does. For example, this morning in my small prayer group, we were preparing to pray over 12 long lists of names, each one representing difficulty and sadness.

As we spread our requests on the table in front of us, the 200+ needs sometimes threaten to overwhelm us. We can feel like our Teacher is “failing to answer” our prayer-questions. Where are the yeses?

Today he used one of his student teachers to deliver our lesson. Abigail said, “I like to think that as we pray, it’s like putting money in God’s bank. He hears us each time we plead for answers and is quietly working on our requests much like a savings account is changing, based on compounding interest. The prayer/account grows and grows until the day God reveals everything he’d been doing all along, and just like with compound interest, his answers are far larger than what we expected!”

Caa–ching!

So, today’s lesson in God’s School of Understanding used a banking metaphor to teach us why we should keep praying, even when answers aren’t forthcoming. We knew he had a classroom, but who knew he had a bank, too?

“If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.” (Isa. 50:10)

Praising and Praying with Mary

1. Pray that her new nausea would respond to meds
2. Praise that there are stronger meds, if these don’t work
3. Pray for energy to continue wedding planning
4. Praise for friends who never stop praying and encouraging her