4.12.18 Praise & Prayer Prompt: Solution Before the Need

PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• I have no idea who wrote the quote on today’s graphic, but it’s one of those quotes I wish I could claim.
“Long before Zacchaeus couldn’t see Jesus, the tree was already planted to meet his need.”
There is so much brilliant truth in this sentence.
Just so we’re all on the same page, Zacchaeus was a vertically-challenged tax collector who climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus.
Jesus called him down and told Zacchaeus that He was going to his house (Luke 19:1-10).
This was one of my favorite Bible stories as a kid.
Since I started writing this morning, the children’s song, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man,” has been playing in my head (memories of Sunday School).
In Matthew 6:8b, Jesus said, “…your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”
Since God knows our needs in advance, shouldn’t we trust Him to already have the solution figured out?
When we’re discouraged about prayers that linger and go unanswered, we have to trust and wait.
God may show up in the 11th hour, but He’s never late.
And honestly, I think He does that so we recognize His intervention and remember to give Him credit.
And isn’t it funny how we want (even expect!) others to wait on us, but we don’t extend the same patience to others or even God?
But I’m getting off track…
Yesterday’s post briefly spoke of God knowing the number of hairs on our head.
His knowledge of that seems arbitrary, but it drives home today’s point.
If God is interested in the most random bit of detail about you to the point He knows how many strands of hair are on your head, of course, He knows exactly what you need!
But that brings up another point—do we know what we need?
The line between what we think we NEED versus what we WANT often gets real hazy.
However, God knows us even better than we know ourselves (Romans 8:27).
He made us and knew us before we were born (Psalm 139:13, Jeremiah 1:5, Galatians 1:15, to name a few).
As Jesus said in Matthew 6:25-30, God’s taking care of sparrows and lilies.
And we are more valuable to Him than birds and flowers.
We can trust Him to take care of us.
Even by planting the perfect tree exactly where we’ll need it years before we ever need to climb it.
Today, let’s praise God who knows our needs and has already figured out the solution.
Let’s pray for wisdom that as we offer prayer requests, we’ll recognize His provision and thank Him before He answers.