Missed Blessings

I read a story the other day that has had me thinking. The story was told about a woman who past the same man every day on her way home from work. This man stood on a corner of a busy intersection holding a sign asking for food and stating that he was hungry. The woman past the first day and felt bad for the man but didn't respond. She saw him on the second day and her heart was a bit more stirred and she continued to think about him even after she was home. On the third day she was eating her lunch at work and thought about the man she would more than likely see once again on her way home from work. She decided to make a stop at a near by burger establishment on her way home. As she approached the intersection she saw the man at the same spot, and she pulled over in close proximity to where the man stood and she called out to him telling him she had brought him a burger and fries to eat. At first the man appeared to have not even heard her, she repeated what she had said, and couldn't believe her ears with his response. He had been polite enough when he told her he didn't eat beef, he was watching his cholesterol levels, so that ruled out the fries as well.
How many times do we pray for answers to lifes situations or trials and the Lord answers, yet we pass, because the answer didn't look like we had invisioned it to look. Or we didn't think it was the right answer for us. I really think many times God does send answers to our prayers and we refuse them. So many times when we pray I think we can already have in our minds what the response should be, how it should appear and even when, then when a turn of events happens that changes the situation wether that change is good, bad, or indifferent we turn our backs and walk away not even considering the idea that it very well could be an answer from the Lord. Not always when the Lord answers our prayers do we receive immediate relief. I believe that sometimes answers to prayer can be a process that happens over time.
Just like in the illustration of the starving man, the womans heart was stirred to help him, and he looked the answer to his prayer in the eye and refused it.
The only way we can be in tuned to the way God may be working in our lives is to stay in tuned with Him. He wants us to be an active part of what He is doing in our lives. God doesn't need us to bring blessing to our lives, but He desires us to share our lives with Him, even though He knows all things in advance, it's about the relationship.
1 John 5:14-15 tells us that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
I pray you will go to the Lord today asking for your eyes to be opened to the blessings He brings into your life, and your relationship with Him will become deepened with every word spoken in His presence.
"So will I compass thine altar, O Lord; that i may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of thy wonderous works". Ps 26:6-7