Episode Details...
Let's Pray
When God Answers Late
Justin Woods, a long-time Hope Channel team member, shares his remarkable journey of waiting on God through years of unanswered prayer. From a dinosaur dig in Texas to a surprise call to India, Justin recounts how bold, specific prayers led to unexpected doors, a career in Christian media, and a family he never imagined he would find in Maryland.
In this episode of Let's Pray, Season sits down with Justin Woods, a nearly 15-year Hope Channel colleague, to trace how persistent, specific prayer shaped the course of his life. Justin begins with his background in computer science and paleontology, describing how he set a deadline before God, prayed daily for months, and heard nothing, only to wake up one Sunday morning with what he describes as a physical weight on his chest urging him to move to Southern California and enroll in a geology PhD program.
The episode examines what happens when God's answer arrives not at the end of a prayer season but long after the question seemed closed. Justin's story moves from freelance television work at Hope Channel to a surprising phone call from a then-Vice President, asking him to relocate to India and help launch Hope Channel there. The timing of that call, arriving the same evening he had prayed for something "big and specific" by the end of the day, becomes a central moment the episode turns over at length.
The conversation also explores Justin's resistance when a subsequent job offer in Maryland threatened the future he had mapped out for himself, including his hopes for a relationship and family. Justin reflects on his own admission, "I'm not willing to be willing, but I am willing to be willing to be willing," and how the employment process itself became the time God used to move him. The episode also touches on the theology of waiting, referencing Daniel 10 and the idea that prayer "goes ahead of us and makes future deposits," and raises the question of whether human prayer gives God permission to act within the boundaries of free will.
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Justin Woods, a long-time Hope Channel team member, shares his remarkable journey of waiting on God through years of unanswered prayer. From a dinosaur dig in Texas to a surprise call to India, Justin recounts how bold, specific prayers led to unexpected doors, a career in Christian media, and a family he never imagined he would find in Maryland.
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So often we pray for our desire, but what about God’s? We will tackle this question and more, as we bring you another episode of Let’s Pray.
Is it strange to think that pain has a purpose? We will talk about this during our program tonight. Join us with your prayer requests and praise reports, we are here for you.
Are we looking to other things to satisfy our needs? If that is the case, we are heading for a big disappointment. Let us all put our trust in Him, the only source of true fulfillment.
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