Great Expectations

We had a great time of prayer tonight with some of our church family.  There were a few testimonies of how God has answered prayer that were incredible and our pastor gave a short devotional message on the passage where Peter shows up at the home where people are praying for his release from jail and no one believes the servant girl when she says he is at the door.

I was thinking about that account as well as the passage about the travelers on the road to Emmaus and my mind connected the two...we hope and even pray for things often, but how often do we pray expecting the answer?  Do we miss the miracles because they don't happen?  Do they not happen because we are not praying for them?  Or, do we miss miracles that are actually happening right in front of us and we do not see them because we really aren't believing God will answer us?  I mean why wouldn't Jesus be alive?....He said He would be.....and why wouldn't Peter be at the front door?....God answers prayer, right?  It just makes me wonder how many times I have been THIS CLOSE to a real miracle and not seen it because of my doubt.

That brought back to my mind a part of the movie Facing The Giants that has stuck with me ever since the first time I saw it....the quote is:

"Grant, I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain.  And both of them prayed for rain, but only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it.  Which one do you think trusted  God to send the rain?"