The most important lesson I have learned so far is that God will never answer in the way that you had expected. The answers always come in a way that you will never see coming, and the danger is missing one of His answers because you were looking in the wrong place or at the wrong time.

During the four-hundred years that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt to Pharaoh, they endlessly called on the Lord to save them, and He heard their cries. He said that He had heard their prayers and had come down to save them. And He picked out Moses to co-labor with Him to complete His plan. Moses was a Hebrew by birth, and his job would be to lead the Israelites out of slavery and introduce the people to their God.

Even the way that God called Moses was unexpected: He appeared in a bush that was on fire but never burned up. Creosote bushes are known to spontaneously combust in the summer heat, but this particular bush attracted Moses’ attention because it was not consumed by the flames.

So, God sent Moses to the Israelites, and they initially did not accept him. He had been raised by the Egyptians and Pharaoh’s palace, and he was not even close to what the Hebrews had been expecting as they prayed for deliverance. Moses was ridiculed repeatedly. He was perceived as a traitor because he had run out on them years ago, and now he wanted to return and be their leader? No way.

If they had kept their attitude towards him, the Israelites would have never been rescued from slavery. But God opened their eyes, and they finally saw Moses as God intended and as the answer to their prayers.

Examine the things that have taken place recently in your life. Maybe you have just received some news about your loved one, or maybe there has been some sudden silence. This does not even resemble an answer to any of the prayers you have been praying. But could it actually be an answer and you are just not seeing it for what it really is? Is there conveniently an absence of information that makes it impossible to deduce any facts? It is very possible that what you have recently heard or seen is actually a very important part of what He promised you. Or maybe you are questioning the entire situation, seeing all that your loved one is involved in and how lost they seem, and you have asked yourself how God could possibly be in this. But I challenge you to look for God in the out of the ordinary things that are happening in your life. You might be expecting to hear that your loved one has been totally transformed and healed by your prayers, that they are now on fire for God, and everything has completely turned around. But what you have received is news that they are now lower than they have ever been before. So how could God be in that? Because the prodigals of our lives come back home after they find themselves in their pig pens. DO not overlook the news of the pig pen and think that your prayers have not been answered. You are ultimately petitioning God to deliver them and bring them back home, and the news that sounds like the worst news could in fact be the best news you could have received.