He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. – Isaiah 30:19
A few weeks ago my wife and I visited a branch church for their special meetings. After a service, we went to the home of one of the families for a bite to eat, and we saw that there were three very sad children in that home—especially their little girl. She lay on the davenport like she had lost her last friend. The problem was that their dog was missing. We had seen him before church—he was a beautiful white Lab—but after church their gate was left open. They did not know if somebody stole him or if he wandered away. The kids got on their skateboards and rode around the neighborhood searching for him, and then their father drove the car around with everyone calling out the dog’s name. No success.
It was not a very happy place to be, even after a good church meeting, but we eventually sat down for our snack. They asked my wife to pray, and after she blessed the food she added, “Lord, for the kids’ sake, let their dog come back.” We had not even begun eating before there was a knock at the door. Someone was asking, “Is this your dog?” It was! You should have seen that little girl’s face—she looked like it was Christmas Day! God was showing those children how much He cares for them.
That was not the end of the story. The next morning, we all went to the beach. We walked along a huge park, and eventually I got tired and decided to rest in the shade. The children swam for a bit, and then we packed up and went back to the beach house. Later that day, I went to take my hearing aids out and one was gone! I searched all over for it, and finally remembered I had taken it out on the beach to use my phone. I decided to go back and search for it, but I looked and looked and it was nowhere to be found. A man came and helped me for a bit, then he got discouraged and left. I did not stop though. I covered every inch of where I thought it could be. In the meantime, I was praying that God would help me find it. I remembered how God brought the dog back and prayed, “Lord, remember the dog?”
Well, I looked for another twenty or thirty minutes and was ready to give up. Then a lady came by and asked me what I was doing. I explained about my hearing aid and then turned to go back to the house. She walked less than fifteen feet, leaned down and picked something up, and then came back to me asking if what she was holding was my hearing aid. It was!
The Lord is so good. If I would not have found my hearing aid, it would not have ruined my faith—I would have known that it was my own fault for being careless. But God loves us, and He helps us even when the things we are asking for will not matter to anyone else. Let’s never hesitate to take our concerns to God. He loves us enough to answer.