Answered Prayer

In talking with Matthew about Felicity's prayer to be able to have her child early so she could die with her friends and then sharing the immediate answer of Felicity going into labor, Matthew said, "That doesn't happen."
"Yes it does," was my quick reply.
Matthew then asked for me to give him an example.
So I shared of my experience in Indonesia - at the end of my rope, feeling anxious, worried, and overwhelmed I went into the bathroom, pounded on the wall and asked for God to intercede. Immediately I felt his grace flood over me, surrounding and guarding my heart.
Then there's the more recent time when I was praying about a guy I liked (not Magnus) and God told me "no" and later when I prayed for God to just "tell me when I meet the one" and when I met Magnus God told me "he's the one."
Matthew was surprised. But I think most Christians are surprised when God answers in these ways. We read stories of answered prayer from the Bible or from the church fathers of old, maybe even from "famous"Christians about how God answered their prayer and think "that could never happen... or at least not to me."
In James the author lets us know that "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth" (James 5:17), so why do we exult these heros of the past as opposed to being motivated to imitate them?
We can have prayers answered like Elijah, Paul, Perpetua, or others. We serve the same God who moves in the same way, he is just waiting for us to ask, seek, and believe. Faith to move a mountain, anyone? I hope answered prayers are a reality in every believers life, for when we learn the power of prayer that is when our spiritual lives flourish and grow by God's grace.