Preparing for an answer

And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.

--Philemon 22 (NIV)


I found myself stuck at this verse.

Chian Ming (my CG leader) had painstakingly typed out the entire letter to Philemon because she was unaware that there were online Bible resources. As I was reading through the epistle, this verse stopped me in my tracks.

I suppose it's because of Paul's confidence that he would be released from prison, what with the instructions to prepare for his visit. And I wondered if I ever had so much faith, or at least, faith enough to make plans in anticipation of God's favourable response.

There's this story I heard a long time ago, and you might have heard it too, of how a community that was in the midst of a terrible drought got together to pray for rain. And then they stood out in the open to wait for the rain. At some point someone spotted in the crowd a girl with an umbrella, and so he/she asked her why she was carrying an umbrella. She said she wanted to be prepared for the rain.

I realise that all too often, I pray and then wait for an answer, but I do nothing to prepare myself for it. Maybe, to put it in simplistic terms, I have been treating prayer like a competition in which I submit my entry and then just wait for the results, rather than an ongoing effort like fishing or farming or helping organise a trip/reunion.

Paul's words to Philemon are an apt reminder to pray with anticipation.