It’s that thing that you’ve been praying about for weeks, maybe months or years, that you REALLY want.  If God would answer this prayer in a “Yes!”, life would be just that much better.  Ever been there?  I have.  In fact, I’m there right now.  I’m asking for something that I really hope the Lord will answer in the affirmative, but I’m trying my best to stay at the place of “God, I’m asking You to do this, but not my will, Your will.”  Maybe you can relate.  I think we all have been there on a regular, sometimes daily, basis.  Some things small, some things life critical.

I came across Joel 2 today verses 18-27, and Joel is talking about answered prayers…big prayers.  Joel in fact is talking about how God is going to answer their big prayer for deliverance from an oppressive enemy.  Joel not only says, “Yes, God is going to answer your prayer the way you want”, but then he even describes just how great this answer to prayer is going to be: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten..” (v25)

That’s not what grabbed me this morning though.  Instead it was this phrase right in the middle of all this prayer-answering:

Surely he has done great things! (v20)

The whole chunk of verses is talking about how incredible God’s future answer to prayer WILL be, but this phrase is an important reminder: Don’t forget, He has already done great things.

God may or may not answer our current request or desire the way we want.  He can do that because He is God, we don’t see it all, and I’m okay with that even though it isn’t always easy.  The reminder to me though is to not forget.  Don’t forget how good God has been to me.  Don’t forget how MANY times He has delivered me when I was dead meat.  Don’t forget that only He knows the stuff down deep that we struggle with and still loves us.  Don’t forget that there have been times in the past where He has said, “Yes!” and exceeded our expectation.  Don’t forget that even in the past when He said, “No” I can look back and often see the reason why over time.  Don’t forget.