When Your Prayer is Answered in an Unconventional Way
Conclusion: Be careful what you pray for.
You may be familiar with the curse of the lottery. There have been documented cases where normal individuals, looking back over their “good fortune” of winning the lottery, regretted their decision to buy a ticket.
Many people think winning the lottery would be the answer to their prayers and the solution to all of their problems — but some winners have had the opposite experience. Despite being lucky enough to win the lottery, they later wished they’d torn up their ticket rather than redeeming it.
Have you ever prayed for something and got exactly what you prayed for? The only problem was how your prayer was answered.
In my early adulthood, I was on staff at two churches for over 18 years. I served each congregation as a youth minister. During the first half of those years, I was privileged to serve on a denominational youth camp board.
As we were looking for ideas for our camp, several board members and I attended a ministry retreat at a much larger Camp and Conference Center in a neighboring state, 300 miles away from us. The facilities were great, and the programs drew large groups each summer.
After a delicious meal, all the attendees gathered in this beautiful rustic auditorium for a general session one night. My colleagues and I found our way to the second floor. The only seats up there were comfortable couches side-by-side around the narrow balcony area.
The session began, and the more I sat there, with a full stomach and not much sleep the night before, the sleepier I got. I started nodding like a woodpecker trying to open a hole in a redwood tree.
You know how you feel when you catch yourself in the middle of a nod. In reality, you’ve just moved your head an inch, but it feels like you’ve picked your head up off the floor, stood up, and screamed: “I’m awake, I’m not sleepy!”
After that happened several times, I took the ultimate gamble. I said a prayer.
Dear Lord, I need to get through this session without going to sleep. Could you please wake me up?
Big mistake! I thought I was asking God to miraculously (and safely) make me not feel sleepy so I could keep my eyes open and pay attention to what was being said from the stage. But I had not asked Him that in those specific terms.
Not 60 seconds after I gave Him my very general “wake me up” prayer, I felt something on my neck! By its sounds, I got the indication it was a bee! I knew not to swat down on it because I didn’t want to send its stinger into my neck or my hand.
So I did the quick “brush off,” trying not to be too big of a distraction to those around me. I turned my neck to verify it was a bee as it fell behind the couch I was sitting on.
I was awake!
The bee didn’t look dead as it was falling. Did I kill it? Is it on the floor behind the couch? I couldn’t see down there. Will it crawl back up the couch and take another shot at my neck? Will it crawl under the couch and try to crawl up my leg under my pants to get some good leg meat?
With one bee, God answered my prayers. He helped me get through the rest of the General Session without falling asleep, and He did wake me up! I couldn’t tell you anything said during the session, especially after God woke me up, but He’d answered my prayer with a “Yes, I can wake you up!”
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! John 15:7 NLT
I believe God answers prayers. Some people have issues with Him when He decides not to say “yes” but says either “no” or “wait.”
Since that night, I’ve never prayed that prayer again! I have been in similar circumstances and have used a modified version of that prayer.
“God, could you please help me to stay awake for this session without sending a bee to land on my neck, or not causing any type of physical threat to my body?”
To this prayer, He has said “No” many times over.
I have also prayed, “Dear Lord, I am having difficulty staying awake during this session. If it’s okay with you, could you miraculously make me not sleepy without using any outside force?” He also said, “No.”
He has told me, “Remember all that food you ate right before this session? I think there is a lesson in there that you should learn.” He’s also asked me, “Hey, do you remember last night when you chose to read instead of sleeping two hours past when you normally try to sleep?”
I am grateful that God answers prayers, yet since that night, I have been very careful how I have worded my prayers to Him.