15 Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. 16 The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.

17 The servant hurried to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water from your jar.”

18 “Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink.

19 After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” 20 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. 21 Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.

22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels. 23 Then he asked, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

24 She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor.” 25 And she added, “We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.”

26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, 27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.” Genesis 24:15-27

Abraham’s servant prayed, Rebekah appeared, and he praised the Lord for answering his request in a manner very similar to his request. From this alone, it would be easy to conclude that prayer is formulaic and rote. But as we noted yesterday, prayer rarely happens like that, and it would dangerous to think that it does.

Have you ever comforted a child when she was afraid because of a thunderstorm or she had a bad dream? What did the child say? Probably, “I’m scared.” And you responded in kind with comforting words and a long hug.

Similary, have you ever prayed those words to God, “I’m scared?” Maybe a spouse was gravely ill or a child ran away. No more words were needed. God, being the loving Father He is, responded based on your need. You didn’t need to tell him the circumstances of your fears. He knew them because He knew you. You didn’t need to give him a laundry list of requests based on that fear. He knew them. And you certainly didn’t tell Him how to answer that fear.

I suspect He answers these types of prayers much more than when we’re directing how He should answer because they come out of pure emotion.

On the other hand, God hears all types of prayers and just wants us to come to Him any way we can.