A Doll Refreshed My Faith

 

Factually, I know God hears and answers prayers.  I can tell you the verses and references.  I can give you amazing examples of the ways the Lord has answered my prayers.

Sometimes, my feelings get in the way. I don’t feel like the Lord is answering my prayers.  To be honest, I feel that way, because I didn’t get my own way.  The Lord answered, but He either told me “No” or “Wait” or “I have something better for you.”  Just like little kids in the treat aisle of the grocery store, all we want to hear is “Yes.”

I wasn’t asking for wealth, fame, or success.  I asked for restoration in relationships.  I asked for healing and conviction in a friend’s marriage.  I asked for an Innocent Man to be found innocent by a jury.  No, I begged the Lord not to send the Innocent Man to jail.

That evil voice likes to tell us that our prayers aren’t important, why bother, and God doesn’t care.  We know the voice is wrong, but we listen anyway.

We pout.  We’re in good company with pouters, read all about Jonah pouting under a vine after leading an entire city to faith in the Lord.  How about Elijah?  He challenged the prophets of 450 Baal and won, then begged the Lord to kill him when Jezebel went after him.

I’d been discouraged about prayer. 

 

Then I found this at an estate sale last week.  It was five minutes to closing and a sales person was vacuuming the house and giving me fake-smile-blank-stare while looking at her watch. This little girl was in a box of broken, useless toys that nobody wanted. 

Except for me.  I’d been looking for this doll for years.

Every fall, for about 15 years,  we’ve set up this Colonial dollhouse and family and taken out all our books on Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims.  Somewhere along the line, the big sister lost her arm and it never showed up in a diaper or the toilet.  If you think this is TMI, you probably aren’t a parent in charge of wiping and observing. If they swallow it, it has to pass. Just sayin’.  

Anyhoo, the company went out of business.  None of my homeschool resources carried the dollhouse, and I doubted I would buy the whole set again just for an arm.  So, our little darling has only had one arm for years. I checked online, toy stores, Amazon and eBay and Etsy.

Then I found her replacement in a box of junk at a closing estate sale.

I was so excited!

Then humbled.

Then thankful.

Then worshipful.

See, I hadn’t even prayed about the doll.  It wasn’t that important to me.  We could have lived the rest of our lives out with a one armed doll and it wouldn’t have hurt us at all.

The Lord chose to provide anyway. He remembered a mere want when I had forgotten about it.

He reminded me that if He knew and provided a simple, unimportant desire of my heart, He could take care of the trials that burden down my heart and faith.

Luke 16:10, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.”

I had only thought of this verse in regards to my faithfulness, not His.

But if it’s true for us, it’s even more true for Him.

He shouldn’t have to prove His faithfulness by answering little prayers and providing small desires of our heart, but He does.  We should trust Him because He promised to answer our prayers, always be with us and to provide, but we don’t.

2 Timothy 2: 13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

Even when we don’t exercise faith, there’s still faith exercised on the Lord’s part.

No more feelings, I need to get back to the facts of prayer. This little doll with two arms will forever preach to me about the faithfulness of the Lord and remind me to pray in faith.