There might not be anything more humbling than to be teaching a Bible study or leading a discussion on spiritual matters and have a truth from God’s word smack you upside the head in mid-sentence. That happened to me last night at our women’s group. We’ve just started a new series on prayer … actually, we were supposed to start three weeks ago, but my life has been a wee bit topsy-turvy in that timeframe. Anyway, we started the intro session last night, and one of the author’s (Stormie Omartian) comments caught my attention like a stray Lego under bare feet in the middle of the night.

Stormie Omartian wrote (my paraphrase) that those of us who are in Christ can be assured that our prayers, though seemingly unanswered at the time, are paving the way for God to work in our lives down the road. She used the word “manifested” to describe how God’s answers to our prayers may not be obvious right away.

I sure needed to hear that.