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Our Prayer-Answering God (when He says yes)

Published on by Abigail Rehmert2 Comments

There’s such good news about prayer – 1) It accomplishes much (James 5:16), 2) it gives us much-needed and enjoyable time spent with the Most High, 3) it changes our own hearts, 4) and He commands/calls us to pray because He loves to answer according to His will.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight…The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 15:8, 29

God always hears His children’s prayers. He hears our cries for help (Psalm 18:6). But do we always receive what we ask for when we pray? No, we don’t. “(God) works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). His sovereignty rules over all (Psalm 103:19).

Because He KNOWS all things and has all the power, He always answers our prayers with what is best! He works everything together for our good, and for His glory. He is the safest place to entrust our requests to, because He knows exactly what to do with them.

Sometimes He answers yes, other times He asks us to wait, or in other cases, he withholds what we asked Him for. But we still pray. And in those moments of waiting for our answer, we recognize WHO we pray to.

One of His names He’s given for us is – ABBA FATHER. Romans 8:15 says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!'”

What an intimate title! John Macarthur wrote, “When you pray, start out this way: ‘Daddy, Papa.’” That, by the way is still used today in Hebrew-speaking families – a term of tender affection, family love – and rabbis used to note that the first words that a child ever uttered were abba and imma.”

Let me ask you this. Is anything too big, too silly, or too little for a daughter to talk to her Father about? No, a good father delights to listen to his child, and give her what He knows is best for her. 

We have a literal father-daughter relationship with King. 

Sometimes He gets glory by answering YES to our requests

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Matthew 7:8-11

This passage breathes hope into our prayer lives. A good father is a good gift giver. Earthly fathers should be a little glimmer of our Perfect Father.

Since we don’t pray perfectly, the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf with groanings too deep for words. He helps us pray according to His will! 

Prayer changes things, because God incorporates our prayers into His sovereign plan. “Prayer is what He uses to do what He does.” (MacArthur)

When a good gift drops in our life, no matter how big or little, it’s not a coincidence. It’s from the Gift giver (James 1:17). Often He delights us with good gifts, even before we ask. He’s so gracious. I don’t pray for my next breath, yet He is faithful to give it.

When He answers yes to our prayers, what a privilege to be part of God’s ministry all over the world. We can effectively participate in places all over the globe, and homes all over your state, and in hearts of people we don’t even know, simply by talking to God about them. 

There are many instances of God answering the prayers of people throughout Scripture. Here are just a few:

“Noah prayed, his family was rescued. Hannah prayed, Samuel was born. Asa prayed, victory was won. Isaiah prayed, the Assyrians fell. Esther prayed, her people were saved. Elijah prayed, fire fell from heaven. Jesus prayed, thousands were fed. God answers prayer!”

Dustin Benge

He is pleased when we continue to come to Him with childlike faith and childlike requests. In the many ways we see Him answering “yes” to the prayers of the saints, we have amble material to constantly praise God for His mighty works.


One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.

Psalm 145:4

If you have trusted in Christ as your Savior, take great delight in praying. He has given us boldness to approach the throne of grace. A throne of undeserved favor!

“Jesus paid it all. I mean all. He not only purchased your forgiveness of sins and your ticket to heaven, He Purchased every blessing and every answer to prayer you will ever receive.” 

Jerry Bridges 

Next in the series: Our Prayer-Answering God (when He says wait)

A Fairytale of a Summer

Published on by Abigail RehmertLeave a comment

How can one summer hold so much grace?

Reading familiar good books always feels like “coming home,” and I’m richer for having read several favorites again and many news ones. I also loved the thrift finds; maybe I’ll share about some of those another day.

Our garden produced a wild tangle of more tomatoes than we could dream of. I’m going to miss having a fresh tomato and fresh herbs to garnish any dish. The tomato soup and fresh pico! We also highly recommend limelight hydrangeas.

I’m so grateful for a lovely new sister and a wonderful new brother, added to our family within five days of each other! The early summer brought many enchanting evenings, all anticipating these two new marriages.

Speaking of marriage, we celebrated four years! Truly love him more today than ever (which was a statement I never understood before getting married). He is so many answered prayers all rolled into one man.

In our summer travels, I enjoyed the mountains and the plains (and the dear people even more). It dawned on me, walking the open dirt road flanked with farm fields, that the unbroken horizons prompt the same awe-filled worship as do the mountain-crested ones. God declares His glory in all His creation.

 “Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
 Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.”

Psalm 103:1-5

More Thoughts After Bookends

Published on by Abigail Rehmert1 Comment

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Light, amusing, well-written glance into America in the 1960s. The Wednesday Wars is about the mishaps and misfortunes of a young teenager who loves Shakespeare and goes to high school in Long Island, New York. The author ushers the reader into the story so well, that eventually, I couldn’t wait for the book to be over because I didn’t feel like going to middle school any longer. 😀 The wording gets repetitive after a while, which was a little tiring. Also, his parents’ lack of involvement makes me sad.
Even though I’m not a middle-grader, I might check out the author’s other books.

A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte

Continue reading “More Thoughts After Bookends” →

Thoughts after Bookends

Published on by Abigail Rehmert3 Comments

Gilead by Marilynn Robinson

I heard big things about this author (Gilead won a Pulitzer), but the story just didn’t captivate me. It’s a memoir — a pastor writing letters to his son on his death bead, but he’s not actually bedridden. His son is still young at the time of his writing, and I wanted them to be out making memories together, rather than him just reminiscing days gone-by. I found it hard to follow the plot line, since there was little action. There were some thought-provoking faith statements here and there, and maybe someone else would really enjoy. Am I missing something? Because it sure wouldn’t be the first time I’ve missed something poignant in my first read through.

True Grit by Charles Portis

I’m not typically one for Westerns (wait, had I ever read one?), but True Grit is now a personal classic — both witty and brilliant. The main character, a 14-year-old girl, seeks vengeance on an outlaw responsible for her father’s death. Despite all the big shots, SHE is the one with the true grit. My husband and I listened together, and he wrote some fun thoughts on the book.


The narrator I found on Scribd (Donna Tartt) makes the experience, along with driving across the high desert plains and canyons as you listen (seriously, just start wandering around barren backcountry for the full western effect). The 2010 movie follows the book quite cleverly!

Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies

After reading Anne’s Frank diary, this book deepens the layers of the harrowing account of hidden Jews in Amsterdam. Miep and her husband made it possible for the Frank family to go into hiding. Her bravery shines through even though she forcibly shifts the spotlight off of herself in this detailed account. She said she just did what had to be done — even when it meant standing toe-to-toe with the Nazis. I recommend this book if you’re interested in true, home-front WWII courage.

How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife by Christine Hoover

Encouraging, convicting, and a blessing to read. Christine warns against comparison and bitterness, and highlights safeguards and boundaries for your marriage and children amidst ministry.

Millie Keith based on the series by Martha Finley

This purple-covered, eight-book series is really for teen girls, but reading them is like coming home to me. Something I cherished this summer. I wrote a post dedicated to the characters, The Company We Keep and also interviewed the adapter/author here.

This Tender Land by Kent Krueger

This Tender Land was a page-turner for me, and I enjoyed the quality description and the history nestled in the 1930s setting.

This story about kids, is certainly not FOR kids. The children meet a constant string of unsavory adults. This makes the storyline a bit depressing, though, unfortunately, realistic.

*SPOILERS — This Tender Land doesn’t detail anything explicit, but alludes to all manner of everything sinful. I found it sad that the orphans were, in a way, pursuing the one true God, but never found Him — never once did they find the Word of God. Lots of spiritual references and a theme of forgiveness, but no solid theology landed upon. All the “spiritual” adults in the story were plagued with phoniness and hypocrisy (like faked healings).

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Only my second novel by her, I’d love to read some more. We found the overwhelming amount of characters to be tedious and difficult to keep track of, as trekked along our cross-country roadtrip. I googled the lengthy list of characters. However, her writing is so vivid; it’s amazing how each character truly owns their own backstory and voice.

The Watchmaker’s Daughter by Larry Loftis

A biography about Corrie ten Boom, told in chronological order. If you’ve never read The Hiding Place, there’s no match for it, and I highly recommend reading it before any other biographies about the Ten Booms. You just can’t replace the soul-stirring, first-person, unfolding drama of The Hiding Place. However, The Watchmaker’s Daughter tells their story well, and includes some information and historical context that The Hiding Place does not.

Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt

I loved this book! It’s about the importance of children’s literature, laced with reasons and references from great fiction. It’s delightful and compelling. Her nods to Winnie the Pooh, Little House on the Prairie, etc. is like a little visit to the wonderment of childhood and provided fresh and practical inspiration for making my own son’s childhood sweet with honey. “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24

She includes lengthy recommended booklists in the back.

Transforming Power of the Gospel by Jerry Bridges

Transforming Power of the Gospel changed my life years ago when my dad gave me a copy, in response to a lot of wrestling with questions.

How do I be sanctified? God is sovereign, so how do I depend on Him but also walk forward in responsibility with the right motives? And why is not working? Why do I do the thing that I hate?

If you have questions like this, know the gospel is for every day. Jerry Bridges discusses the MOTIVATION for our day-to-day good works. Guilt that meets GRACE that outpours into gratitude. He beautifully illustrates this from the life of Isaiah.

MORE TOMORROW

Thank you for reading by book reviews. I always enjoy and welcome your recommendations and discussion on any of the ones you’ve also read! Isn’t it interesting how our perspective of a book can be shaped as we exchange ideas and takeaways with others?

Check back on the blog TOMORROW, because I have more recent book reviews, including Jill Duggar’s new book, and some of my favorites of all time!

The Company You Keep

Published on by Abigail Rehmert2 Comments

I met her many years ago, when I was 13.

Her name is Millie Keith, and she remained a great friend to me through all my life’s seasons. She also was 13, the oldest of eight children, and a fairly new Christian, desiring to follow Jesus’s footsteps. The biggest difference between us is that she lived in the early 1800s. She wasn’t even real at all.

The Millie Keith series captured me with humor and dynamic characters and plot, and showed me how wrestling with doubts as you learn to trust God is normal. Millie moved to the frontier from Ohio, leaving everything familiar. The Keith family shares the gospel with whoever they can, on steamboat or stagecoach. Later, due to a chronic sickness, Millie would visit the deep South to try to heal her lungs. While there, she stood up against slavery and . . . lost her heart. Finally, in her 20s, she would answer the call to a foreign nation to share Christ with a place far different than anything in America.

Many Christian fiction books mention “God,” “faith,” and “prayer” a few times and that’s it. That’s fine. Not all art must spell out truth, some just reflects it. Christians have also written stunning analogies (like Pilgrim’s Progress and the Narnia books). They’re desperately needed. But as a young person, I was most encouraged when reading about believers who apply God’s Word to their every day scenarios, like loving a little brother when he is annoying or giving grace for a legalistic religious friend. Millie prays in an ongoing conversation to God throughout her day, lifting up her worries and praise at His goodness. While the Keith family’s lives are bright, humorous, and full of good things — they also encounter difficult questions, suffering, and the hardships of the frontier. Fiction is good, because it reminds us “both what the world is, and what it should be” (said by a fellow writer friend).

Millie’s Aunt Wealthy, an eccentric mentor character, says, “Life is not a tea-party my dear, but a wild adventure.” She inspires us to search for “divine appointments,” opportunities God brings to minister to a variety of different people who cross our paths.

I wanted to be like Millie. I wanted a Bible with hot chocolate stains on it.

“(Millie) had been in the habit of reading her Bible at least once a day since she had become a Christian two years before. Papa had knelt with her when she prayed to accept Jesus as her Lord, and then he had given her his own Bible… Millie had carried the book with her not only to church and to school but up trees and under hedges — all of her favorite reading places.”

Millie’s Unsettled Season

“The pages had been stained with tears, shaken with laughter, and endured at least one cup of hot chocolate spilt in the book of Lamentations, but Millie’s fingers knew each and every book, and many verses, by feel.”

Millie’s Remarkable Journey

Keep Good Company

Have you been influenced by fictional people? Paxton Hood said, “Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.”

In my experience, not all “Christian” fiction is wholesome. And not all wholesome fiction is “Christian.” So be watchful in your reading, and consume only the best. “Be wise to what is good, and innocent as to what is evil” (Romans 16:19).

I love to spur others to read all things excellent and pure! “One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” –Cassandra Clare

Christians certainly could only read the Bible, biographies and commentaries . . . but oh what they would miss in the world of fiction.

There are dozens of reasons to read quality fiction, and many have said it better than I can. I believe it gives us a beautiful gift of common grace — creativity and imagination realized. It teaches us to think outside ourselves. Ann Voskamp wrote in an article about audiobooks, “When reading is  your favorite pastime – you enter into other lives and gain more time.”

Fiction helps shape us to see who we want to be and understand who we shouldn’t be. It provides a healthy way to pick apart a character (without the sin of gossip and unkind criticism).

Stories can give us aspects of the gospel in new lights and personify truth. The very elements of a story — plot twists, beginnings, happy endings, — mirror our Maker’s great redemption story for us. And the ending will be oh so good and happy.

Create the Company

Not only consume good fiction, but please create it! If you are nurturing the draft of story, don’t give up on it. Etch all the excellence you can muster into the paragraphs. We need more God-honoring word-art in our world.

“Stories are verbal acts of hospitality.”

Eugene H. Peterson

Be like Kersten Hamilton, and pour your soul into your craft. She was tasked with adapting Martha Finely’s work into the Millie Keith series I talk about so much. She bravely enhanced the plot and characters, added much biblical truth, and brought history to life. These books are out of print unfortunately, so they may cost a bit more (they’re worth it, though). You can read my interview with Kersten here where she shares about the fascinating process of adapting this series. Her word arrangements sing, so I value her advice to young writers.

C.S. Lewis said, “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

Let’s aim to keep (and create) fictional company that will inspire brighter destinies and wild adventures — all for Christ’s glory.