I don’t often remember dreams, and my dreams very rarely provide anything useful, but a few days ago, there was an exception. In my dream a lady (I don’t know who it was) said,

I try to live life as a series of answered prayers.

The thought struck me powerfully in my dream. I remember fumbling around (in the dream) for something to write it down with. When I woke up, the above sentence is what I recalled. I know things are coming up, I know the outcomes I would like to see, but I don’t often pray specifically about those outcomes. What if I did? Then my life would be a “series of answered prayers.”

The servant in Sunday’s story practiced this.

Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. Then he prayed, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” (Genesis 24.10 – 14, NIV)

The servant prayed specifically for success and proposed what that success would look like. Then he watched to see if it would come true and told the story to Laban:

“Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful. (Genesis 24.18 – 21, NIV)

“When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘LORD, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. See, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the LORD has chosen for my master’s son.’ “Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ “She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels also.” (Genesis 24.42 – 46, NIV)

In short, the servant experienced his mission as an answered prayer. May we do the same.

Pray continually. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, NIV)

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18.1, NIV)