Answered prayers

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, December 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. It’s time for day three of our series on Answered Prayers. Today, WORLD’s gift officer Max Belz and listener Mary Stella each highlight an instance of God’s grace to them this year.

MAX BELZ: I was getting ready to meet with a person I'm close with, where there has been some, probably some resentment, some spite, some bitterness. And I asked God to be gracious to me and to give His sustaining power and strength to me in that when I was getting ready to meet with that person. And God answered that prayer, I had so much peace, and I was not there to kind of trap them or work my resentment out towards them, but was able to sit back and have peace and ask them questions and have an honest relatively happy conversation with them. I mean, nothing dramatic came out of that. But I'm just saying that when God when you ask God to give His Holy Spirit to you in those those moments of strife He will hear that prayer. And I'm reminded of Luke 11 when it says, what good father, when his son asked for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. I love that verse. And that has been clear to me this year.

MARY STELLA: The last week in November, I was at the eye doctor and I was ordering a new pair of glasses at the Virginia Eye Institute. And I took notice before they even sat down, I saw this young man, he was dressed in camouflage. And I saw a woman with him. And I heard them saying that they had to wait on the order, because they didn't have the money to go through with the order at that point and I wanted so much to turn to them and give them my credit card in the name of Jesus. And I kept my mouth shut. And it bothered me all night because it was a lack of faith because I was thinking that whatever they wanted might have been as expensive as what I just did. So I ruminated and prayed in the evening. First thing in the morning, I called the Institute. I got the lady that was dealing with them. And I told her what I wanted to pay their bill. I said please, by all means, just call them and tell them that somebody is going to take care of this. And it is in the name of Jesus. But then, about a week later, they called back and said she had been trying to get a hold of this family. But their phone was disconnected. I prayed some more, and said, Lord, if it's your will that this family be helped, please, please have them get in touch. Well, sure enough. They called me just a couple of days ago and said the family is still looking for that order for the young man. And would I still be a be willing to pay? I said Oh, absolutely. It's an answer to prayer. The week that I met those two, my scripture of the week that I pulled out of the Bible said you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. Second Corinthians 9:11. That was my scripture that I ignored initially, but all's well that ends well. And there's no greater blessing that I've ever had this year or any year than to be a blessing.

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