October 26, 2026
GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:
“Then the servant prayed, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.‘” (Genesis 24.12-14)
REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:
How powerful our belief in prayer can be. We do not hear the prayers of those Jesus healed. There are times when we hear their petitions for Jesus to take mercy on them. Many times they are not asking for healing but deliverance out of a word of cruelty into a place of peace and pardon and relief. Were they looking for that ultimate “exit plan” where death was preferable to life? Did they see in Jesus the vision of such judgment and power that He would arrest their heart and put them out of their misery to return them to the dust of the earth as if they denied the spirit of God that was still living inside them? In that they found that God always answers prayers and many times not in the way they asked for. It is the same for us, too, mighty ones of God. No one is recording our prayers either. No one knows, unless we tell them, what we are hoping for that God will provide. Still, we pray. Sometimes the Holy Spirit prays when we are without the words we think will move God to act on our behalf. We allow ourselves to listen to the whispers of the enemy who comes alongside us as did Job’s “friends” who say “God is not listening. God does not hear. God does not care. Fend for yourself and make of this life all you can because at the end it is only dust.” Wow! What a lie! I say this because “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4.7) and deny it all we might, we are more than dust to return to dust. We have an eternal identity guaranteed by the imprint of God’s Holy Spirit breathed into us and not merely on us. It is a mark of faith, hope and love which promises God is not done with us yet!
So, no, we do not hear the prayers of many of those whom Jesus healed. He just didn’t walk around at random healing and restoring life. He was purposeful and intentional. He heard the prayers of those who were in earnest and was moved by their request; even the silent ones like the woman with the issue of blood who simply reached out to touch the hem of His robe covered with the dust of the earth or the woman at the well who had no belief that she could be anything more than a fetching woman except Jesus heard her inner pleading or the widow whose only son died leaving her without a good future only the valley of the shadow of death. Yes, they all had a prayer to God for some kind of deliverance and God had an answer for them already prepared. But we do hear the prayer of Abraham’s servant. He did not want to disappoint his master and fail. Even the promise of release from his duty if no woman would return with him for Isaac was of little comfort. It was not in his nature to fail nor fall short. He was observant and dutiful. He was also a believer in his master’s God. So, he prayed for success and for God to provide the faith that would overcome all doubt and question. He waited and watched and believed. He knew what qualities his master desired and what would serve his master’s son the best. Did he observe Rebekah with the others and see how she conducted herself at the well? Did he sense in her such qualities as he knew would serve his master’s expectations well? Was his prayer in anticipation of those qualities or for affirmation of what had been observed? It doesn’t matter, mighty ones of God, because God had prepared an answer and was waiting only for the question. It was the question of the servant whose faith in both God and man (Abraham and Isaac) then that elicited the answer and brought the truth for all to see and the woman that would fill Isaac’s heart overwhelmed by grief and longing.
What is the lesson? Pray. Pray Honest Prayers. Pray prayers honestly. Believe.
TODAYS’ PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:
Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness endeavor, but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.
