Posted By Amazing Moments Staff on April 16, 2012

By Minister Jeremy L. Hammonds

One Tuesday morning after 5 a.m. prayer, I left the parking lot of a local church (of a different denomination) where I attend services, in addition to my own church, and jumped into my 2001 Yukon Denali. “ I really enjoy 5 a.m. prayer,” I thought to myself after a refreshing time hearing about the miracles God had performed for friends, family, co-workers and even strangers in the lives of the participants who attended. I witnessed plenty of people during 5 a.m. prayer asking for healing, deliverance, comfort, peace and a whole host of other prayers for seemingly impossible, heartbreaking, terrible and sometimes really unbelievable situations. And guess what? Some prayers were miraculously answered, some situations improved, some situations completely resolved, and others with seemingly no answer. Some of the outcomes were favorable, and some prayers God did not seem to answer with the desired response, but God always seemed to answer according to what was needed. No believer received no answer to prayer. God always answered with a yes, no, or wait.

The question is not whether God answers our prayer. The real question is whether we recognize His voice when He answers. Watching the prayer life of so many people unfold before my very eyes has helped me to understand how God answers prayer.

I have learned that God is always moving in every situation we pray for. Answering prayers is a process that involves not just God changing a situation, but us allowing God to change us despite the situation. What we want is an instantaneous solution, but we may not be ready to handle His answer. He waits for the perfect time to execute His plans for our lives so we, or other people who may be involved, are mature enough to handle God’s solution. God’s solutions are not always favorable. I have witnessed many people who have said, “God did not answer my prayer exactly the way I prayed, but this or that happened.” I have learned that God knows the solution to the entire problem. We may be praying for what we think is a solution, but it may only be the symptom of a larger issue. God knows the end result, good or bad.

The movie “The Butterfly Effect” is the best visual representation of this. Ashton Kutcher plays Evan Treborn. Evan finds out that when he reads his journals from his troubled past, he is able to go back to the time he wrote about in his journal. He tries to alter his past, and though his intentions are good, his actions cause many unintended consequences (some good, some bad). When we pray, like Evan, our intentions are good, but if we get what we ask for, we may not like the results. God answers in a way that brings the best results, not just for us, but also for others involved.

Yes, I have learned the simple prayers we pray can affect many people. Our prayers go deeper, travel farther, and impact more people than we realize. God puts together the perfect ingredients to answer the right way. The more selfless we become in our prayers, the more we see God’s awesome power.

Those early morning prayers strengthened my faith. I had been a Christian for some time before attending, but had doubts about the Bible, God, prayer and other things. If I had remained close-minded to the beliefs and practices of other Christian denominations, God would not have become more real to me than He had ever been before! Anyone who has problems with God, does not believe in God, or does not believe that Jesus is the only way to be saved, should go to a prayer service; preferably an early morning service. People who show up for a prayer service at 5 a.m. are generally serious about God and prayer. I know that anyone who experiences what I have will want to become a Christian or will work harder to obey God and see their prayers answered in a greater way.

Reflecting on all of this, I continued driving my Denali to work when all of the sudden the gas light came on. “Aw man,” I said, looking at my instrument panel, viewing the gas light blaring in my face, “I forgot to get gas!” I had planned to get gas Monday after work, because I was already on empty, but here it was Tuesday with no time to get gas without being late for work. I’ll just get some after work.  So after work I got in the Denali and rushed out of the parking lot to drive to the other end of town to teach kids Taekwondo in a half hour. Upon entering the Interstate, I noticed that my gas light. “Aw man, the gas!” Now it was all coming back to me. The reason I had forgotten to get gas Monday was because I was rushing to get to the other end of town, as I always do, and I always got gas after I finished teaching. My Denali does not exactly sip gas (12/16 mpg) and with an All-Wheel Drive power train and a huge, 6.0 liter, 364 cubic inch V8 engine, driving for any extended period of time after being on empty is asking for trouble. Plus, gas was approaching $4 a gallon, so I try to avoid stations with high gas prices. So I prayed, “God, please don’t let this car cut off on me. Please allow me to make it to teach my kids today.” Surprisingly, I arrived safely.

You are probably thinking that I left the Taekwondo studio, drove to the gas station and got gas. Nope! I went straight home. Why? I don’t know. I guess I was so completely exhausted from working another 14-hour day that I completely forgot about getting gas. How I managed to ignore the gas light at nighttime is a mystery. Anyway, I woke up early to get to work by 6:30 a.m. I rushed outside, cranked up the Denali, and headed to work. All of a sudden, yep, you guessed it, the gas light came on!

Now I was really freaking out. It was Wednesday morning and I had been on empty for two days! I was not near a gas station and I couldn’t be late for work because they were laying people off and the late ones are normally the first to go. I really wanted to stop. It was the third day! Not thinking it even possible to make it to work, I prayed anyway. “Lord, please get me to work, keep the car running, and please remind me to get gas after work.” God came through again and I made it to work! I thanked Him, but pondered the mistake I had made.

My job has me so afraid that I risked running out of gas more than once, I thought, clocking in. I had let my job consume me to the point where I began to fear the consequences of my actions more than trusting in God. Everybody has an emergency sometimes. Why hadn’t I just called to say I would be late? I was amazed at how much control people can gain over you and you not realize it until you start constantly putting a person’s or an employer’s wants before your genuine need.

I thought about my empty tank all day. I worried that I would be stranded and have to hitchhike to get gas! I placed the key in the ignition to crank up the Denali, scared to death at the likely outcome. I turned the key and heard the roar of the engine, expecting to see the check engine light lit up like a signal of death, letting me know that the end had come. But instead, I saw that I had over a fourth of a tank, and I hadn’t put in any fuel! I have a 26-gallon tank, so somehow more than 6 gallons of gas was miraculously deposited into my gas tank!

Amazed at this, logic kicked in and I thought that maybe someone had come and put some gas in my tank. “Nah,” I thought to myself, “I have a locking fuel cap so no one could get in. And even if they could, who in the world knew I needed gas? People don’t go running around with a gas can in their hand checking to see if people are low and then put a couple of bucks worth in the tank.” At that moment I realized that God had put the gas in my tank! I did not pray for God to give me free gas, but somehow He did it!

Now for the skeptics out there, I want to say that I get my vehicle serviced regularly and everything is always in working order. I also meticulously keep up with the miles I get on a tank. I had driven about 66 miles on empty and God gave me about six more gallons of gas, saving me about $24! Since that day, God has miraculously answered all my prayers in ways I never expected. My faith has grown mightily since then. I know more than ever that God exists, and that the Bible is true, no matter how ridiculous some of it may sound! Now I trust in prayer more than ever because I know it works and nothing is too hard for God, not even manifesting gas out of thin air and putting it in your gas tank!

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