“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7–8)

Last month, I wrote about how frustrating it can be when God doesn’t answer our prayers as quickly as we like.  This month, I’d like to remind us that more often than not, it’s actually the other way around — God is often answering our prayers before we even ask.  I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, as Hurricane Ian is about to make landfall in Florida as an almost category 5 hurricane.  By the time you read this, the storm will no longer exist as a named storm and the damage will be done.  Take a moment with me to go back to just a day or two before the hurricane’s landfall.

Yesterday, I was driving up the 29N Bypass to pick my daughter up from school, and I saw at least a dozen utility trucks heading south.  As you know, Rt. 29 isn’t really a major N/S artery in Virginia – that’s I-81 and I-95.  It struck me that if there were that many trucks passing our neck of the woods, how many more are on the interstates, also heading south?

Hundreds of thousands of people have evacuated Florida, which given the size and scope of this storm is a very wise decision.  But thousands will stay behind for a wide variety of reasons.  Given what Ian did to Cuba, and what Puerto Rico experienced last week, we need to be praying for God’s mercy and protection for those in the path of this storm.  This is going to be bad.  

But this is what I saw yesterday:  God was already answering those prayers.  He was already moving into place the people and  resources folks along the Gulf Coast are going to need to recover from this storm.  God was already in the process of answering prayers that had already been lifted up, and anticipating the prayers that were yet to come.  Thousands upon thousands were fleeing the storm, while hundreds were heading toward it.  Utility companies from around the country and disaster relief organizations were marshaling their resources and coming together, ready to spring to action the moment the storm passes.  

Our God is an awesome, and a very, very good, God.  I’m reminded of Psalm 18.  I don’t have the space to quote it here, so I encourage you to go read it.  As you do, keep this in mind:  When the storms of life (both literal and metaphorical) threaten God’s children and we cry out to Him, He springs to action on a storm of his own.  Amen, and amen again.

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison