Do answered prayers = added responsibility?
I was thinking today about a prayer I asked God to answer a long time ago. He answered it in amazing ways and I’ll forever be grateful.
But I wonder if sometimes those answered prayers come with added responsibility?
I had just gotten off the phone with a family member that God stepped in a long time ago to heal my relationship with.
The conversation didn’t go smoothly and when it ended, I had this thought… God answered my prayer years ago to bring peace in that relationship, and it’s up to me if I choose to maintain that blessing or cast it aside and lose it.
Thankfully I think the Holy Spirit stepped in and I decided to not take that blessing for granted and take responsibility to maintain that gift of peace God gave me. But it did make me start to wonder if added responsibility came with all answered prayers?
What other answered prayers have I taken for granted and let fall by the wayside without a second thought as to what God may be hoping from me or expecting from me?
I was thinking about all the avenues of life and our responsibility in each of those areas.
For instance, what if a person who owned a company prayed to God for good and faithful employees and God decided to answer their prayers by you working there?
Maybe you thought it was all about God answering your prayers, maybe He was answering both, now do both of those individuals have an obligation to God to live up to His expectations of a good employer and a good employee?
And what about the parent who prays to God for a child of their own or for a chance to be a parent to a child they’ve been separated from?
Are there added expectations if that prayer is answered to be the best possible parent you can be to show your gratitude to God for answering that prayer? I think so.
I’m not talking about life or death prayers, somehow it doesn’t seem like God’s character to expect something extraordinary from someone who prayers a heartfelt prayer for the life of someone to be spared.
It just seems like there’s lots of opportunity in our busy days to take all of our answered prayers for granted and never do anything extraordinary or even ordinary to show God how grateful we are for His faithfulness.
I think I’m going to look around at my life over the next couple of days and try and see the extraordinary blessings that surround me and try and show a little more gratitude. Maybe I can do that through humility or generosity or patience. I’m not sure yet, but I’ll know it when I see it and I’ll try to do something extraordinary to say thank you God for hearing my prayer and answering it!
What do you think? Does God bless us with answered prayers expecting nothing in return? Or do you think it’s up to us to show our gratitude through faithfulness, random acts of kindness and wholeheartedly trying to share our blessing with others less fortunate?
Or is it both?
