Evan Almighty: Let me ask you something.

Joan Baxter is having lunch with her three sons when men sitting near them make fun of her husband who is mentioned on the TV news.

A few moments later her two youngest sons complain that they aren't hungry and she complains that she can't stop eating. When they mention they need to go to the bathroom, she asks the eldest to go with the other two.

Now sitting by herself, she asks the waiter that walks by for a refill on her basket of food. The charming waiter, whose name tag identifies him as "Al Mighty", soon inquires if she is doing OK.

After some pauses, she finally admits she is not alright and explains the situation about her husband being "New York's Noah."

Al explains the "truth" about the story of the Ark.

When she desperately asks what she is supposed to do about her husband's claim God told him to build an Ark, Al informs that "it sounds like an opportunity."

After Joan looks at Al in confusion, Al provides a fantastic response.

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Do We Miss Opportunities?

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."(Isaiah 55:8)

There is plenty to learn from this verse, one lesson being, God can use any situation for His good and to direct you to do or become what He wants for you.

Looking at what "Al Mighty" pointed out above, we develop patience and courage by being in situation that require to develop those characteristics.

Patience and courage are like muscles. To increase your muscles, you need to put them under strain. You need to start with a certain amount of weight that you can do easily. Then you add weight to your reps and sets. Eventually, the initial weight seems effortless to lift because you have moved to heavier weights.

The same goes for patience and courage. You will face events that require you to exercise your patience and courage "muscles."

When Al uses Joan's own prayer as an example, it shakes her. She had prayed for the family to be closer and was presented with a situation that would require the family to lock arms together in order to make it through.

Do we pray for patience, courage, and family closeness without seeing the trying times as opportunities to strengthen those "muscles?"

This holds true for prayers concerning restored health, financial, spiritual, relational, etc.

We prayed for years that the cancer would leave my grandmother. It never did.

Yet, her 6-12 month life expectancy lasted nearly 16 YEARS. During that time she saw hundreds of doctors, nurses, front desk workers, and more that she would never had opportunity to meet. And she used many of those meetings to share her faith with them.

God Answers All Prayers

God will answer every prayer. The issue for most people is they assume an answered prayer is a prayer that God says "Yes" to. God can answer prayers with a yes, no, or not yet.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 declares, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven."

In Matthew 6:7-13, Jesus tells His disciples, "“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

James 5:16b (NLT) reads as "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results."

The New Living Translation (NLT) of the Bible is a modern English translation which is accurate in meanings while keeping to the form and structure of the original scriptures.