Imagine this morning, you walk out your back porch with your coffee and you sit to watch the birds. This is "sacred time" before you run into the office. As one Sonshine Friend wrote: "It is an opportunity to get in closer touch with God and his creatures in the beauty of the universe He created." Now in the paradise in your head, imagine a soft light, "alpine glow" that sweetly greets you with" God’s Smile." Let me remind you what’s behind that smile, a God who is very kind, a forgiving God who wants only the best from all of us. A God who asks us to love Him with our whole heart and soul and put our complete trust in Him. A God who never wants us to doubt that He lives within each breath we take, with each heartbeat. Simply, place your hand over your heart and feel this tenderness. He has forgiven us so many times for so many things. Sometimes we think our prayers go unanswered, but God has placed a seed of hope and not despair in our hearts so that the alternative usually turns out to help us nurture and grow even stronger in His grace. When we recognize "God’s Smile" we might humbly ask ourselves what have we done to have such a loving God look after us.I am glad that God does not answer all my prayers the way we pray. Some where and many years ago, a young college student prayed to God that he would make the cut as he auditioned to sing with the Harvard Glee Club. Unfortunately, he was not accepted to their choir. Later after he graduated, Professor Randall Thomson was accepted to serve on the faculty at Harvard University and composed the hymn "Alleluia" that most likely has been sung by every church choir throughout the United States. Believe it or not God smiles when He sometimes says no and Randall was most grateful that God had not answered his prayer that he prayed as a young student. You see it was not his voice but his heart and eyes as he composed his Alleluia hymn that God wanted to give to the world.
Paul put it this way: (Romans 8:26) "We do not know what we ought to pray for..." It is so important to always add, "Not my will, but yours be done, Lord" to our prayers. So, the bottom line is to pray, yes pray without ceasing, and to know that God will answer your prayer. It will be either with a "yes", a "no" or a "wait".
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that with all the difficulties and disappointments and the prayers that are seemingly not answered, You may encouraged each one of them that You are there with them.
