Are you desperate for an answer to prayer? Have you been waiting a long time for a breakthrough regarding something in your life? This devotional offers fresh hope and faith for those weary in the waiting. Come rediscover the heart of an uncommon God who often asks us to do uncommon things to receive His uncommon answers—astounding us beyond our wildest expectations.
Baker Publishing
Day 1
Scriptures: Acts 10:34, Mark 9:23, James 4:2
Uncommon Answers Don’t Have To Be Rare
In Acts 10:34, Peter explained to the Gentiles that God is no respecter of persons. The word respecter here means “the act of showing favor to one on account of rank, family, wealth, or partiality arising from any cause.” This means that no matter what family you come from, how much money you have, or any other reason or partiality you could think of (“arising from any cause”), God shows no favoritism. What He does for one person, He longs to do for all. Miracles should not pertain only to the outliers.
Uncommon answers aren’t uncommon because God wants them to be. They are uncommon because people have decided they will be. One reason uncommon answers are rare is because of a lack of asking. How many things have we failed to ask God to do because we assume it’s too hard or impossible? God wants us to pray audacious prayers that sound outlandish to many people. We need to pray boldly, reminding ourselves that nothing and no one is bigger than God.
When Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist of the nineteenth century, delivered an address at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in New York, he said, “When I was a slave, I tried praying for three years. I prayed that God would emancipate me, but it was not till I prayed with my legs that I was emancipated.”
Uncommon answers to prayer are not exclusively a result of what we do; some miracles come during a time of utter helplessness. But what we do cannot be entirely separated from uncommon answers. James 2:17 says, “Faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”
Are you ready to put legs on your prayers?
Day 2
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12:1, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Proverbs 18:13, Proverbs 1:33, Proverbs 2:6
Uncommon Listening
Failure to take the time to listen not only brings a lack of results but also can end up in crisis. Marriages end every day in part due to a lack of listening. Major leadership failures occur due to partners not intently listening to one another. It is estimated that Fortune 500 companies waste approximately seventy-five million dollars a year in meetings due to ineffective listening. Airline tragedies have occurred when planes collided in the air due to a lack of keen listening to what an air traffic controller was saying.
It is no wonder that active listening is referred to as a superpower. If this is important in the natural realm, imagine how much more powerful it is in the spiritual realm. It is crucial to listen in marriage, in leadership meetings, or to avert a major public crisis—how much more important is it to listen carefully for God in our everyday lives, in matters big and small?
There are Christians who believe that God is saying nothing new today and has not spoken since the Canon (the Bible as we know it today) was closed. While the revelation of God’s plan of salvation, redemption, and all that He has revealed to us about Himself through Scripture is complete, nothing in Scripture says He does not speak to us personally—giving us guidance, direction, or answers.
Not only does God speak, but He desires to speak to anyone and everyone. There are many different prayer models and methods that believers are encouraged to use, and these can be helpful. Yet often the majority revolve around how we are going to address God, not how He wants to address us. He very much wants equal, if not more, time to speak to us.
What is God saying to you as you listen in faith, believing for your miracle? Is there something He is telling you to do to partner with Him for extraordinarily more?
Day 3
Scriptures: Psalms 130:5, Psalms 27:14, Psalms 37:7
Uncommon Waiting
People in today’s society are so impatient for a quick answer, they will do not only inappropriate, but annoying things, to get answers sooner. Have you ever had someone email or private message you, asking about something that you did not respond to instantly?
It’s not just thinking, innovation, or creativity that are impacted by our inability to wait, but the receiving of breakthrough answers to prayer. Scripture is full of encouragement about the importance of waiting. We are promised that the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, and to those who seek His will on matters instead of taking matters into their own hands (Lamentations 3:25). When faced with the temptation to be impatient, we are cautioned to, with the help of God, hold fast and keep waiting for Him to act (Hosea 12:6). With the combination of our fleshly bent toward impatience and culture’s emphasis on getting everything at a rapid pace, we often find ourselves becoming frustrated.
There are times that waiting will not consist of a short delay in everyday circumstances, but a long deferral that feels nearly hopeless. It is crucial to handle these types of waiting periods in the right way because, in this space of time, many people give up or make foolish choices that impact their lives or the lives of others, perpetually.
Uncommon answers often come not only after a season of waiting that feels excruciating, but after waiting well even when things appear hopeless. God has more for us than just the waiting. He wants to form His character in us while we wait.
As you stay alert and ready for God-moments, He will speak to you and lead you not only to receive daily answers to prayer, but to be someone else’s answer to prayer. Waiting is also a time for you to be built up in your faith, to learn, serve, and grow.
Day 4
Scriptures: Matthew 6:9-13, Mark 14:32-36, Isaiah 55:8-9
Uncommon Surrender
One of the most powerful questions we can ask is, “What does God want?” When we wrestle with God, wriggling, twisting, and turning to get the outcome we desire, the answer can elude us. It is in surrendering to His will that it often comes.
The Lord set the example for us when He prayed the greatest prayer of surrender in history, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The uncommon answer that followed this prayer was the greatest the world will ever see—the plan of redemption for humankind, accomplished. What Jesus had to surrender to in that garden prayer was incomprehensible. His agony taking on the sins of the world didn’t start on the cross, but at Gethsemane. Jesus agonized so intensely in those moments that He sweat drops of blood.
God is looking for a surrendered heart. There are times the Lord may not be calling you to do something, He just wants to know if you are willing. Sometimes we wait for what seems like forever for the answer to prayer. One of the quickest ways to get an answer from God is to withhold nothing and surrender everything.
Have you ever been terrified to surrender something to God? Perhaps you have become filled with fear and anxiety over the future—one where your prayer is not answered in the way you want it to be. You begin to imagine worst-case scenarios.
What if you just let go and all your fears come true? What if you fail? What if I look like a fool? These may be thoughts swirling in your head right now. Know this: There is no failure in a surrendered life. If you let go, if you surrender to whatever He wants, whenever He wants it, however it looks, however it feels, whatever it means, there is no failure. You can’t go wrong when you let go and let God have His way.
True faith isn’t the belief that God will do exactly what you tell Him to do or not do. True faith is leaving the outcome to God and trusting Him completely that whatever He decides is best for you.
Day 5
Scriptures: Luke 6:46-49, James 1:22-25
Uncommon Obedience
Obedience to God is a fundamental ingredient to receiving an uncommon answer to prayer. In today’s culture, obedience to God is often seen as dependent upon conditions, but God’s expectation has not changed. As believers, we need to prioritize obedience to God not only as we seek Him for a miracle, but also in day-to-day living. Some believe they can live however they want and still receive extraordinary answers to prayer, while others hesitate to obey what God is speaking to them because it is counterculture—it doesn’t sound “normal”—and they are afraid of being embarrassed.
One of the most basic and important questions a believer must ask oneself is, “Am I living in obedience to God?” If the answer is anything but yes, this is the first thing that needs to be rectified—not only to hear from God clearly, but to obtain the answer they long for. Just as one of the quickest ways to get an answer from God is to withhold nothing and surrender everything, one of the ways to expedite your miracle is to remove every obstacle that is between you and God. You must be prepared to unquestionably obey whatever He tells you to do. Many times, we are our own worst enemy when it comes to receiving an uncommon answer because we are living in willful disobedience.
Just as God is not vague about listening (or much else), there is no ambiguity about obedience. The Word of God tells us that if we are willing and obedient, we will eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). Everyone on the planet wants to have good things in their lives, but we often fail to connect the dots about how our obedience to God impacts those blessings.
The formula is: God says this + you do it = blessing in your life. While it is not always that simple, many times it is.