Hi how are you all today? I am well and currently relaxing at the beach. What is your favourite spot to relax?
As I was pondering on some things over the last day or so, I was thinking about God answering our prayers. Do you ever ponder over this?
Some of my prayers haven’t been answered yet even though it has been years. Sometimes I think I must be praying wrong or have missed something or maybe I am not spending enough time with God? These are all condemnation and me statements.
Because what if I put aside me and begin to wonder what God is doing in me and around me.
First, what is God doing in me? Is my unanswered prayer causing me to become more connected to the vine or less connected? Am I pressing in to God or pulling away because He is seemingly not listening to me or even worse,ignoring me? But maybe in those times, God is building a desperation in me to hold onto Him no matter what. Over the years of unanswered prayer, I have questioned God but even in that questioning is always God saying that He’s got it. It doesn’t look like it to me but I have to remind myself that the unseen realm is more real than the seen realm. There is more happening in the unseen than the seen.
Second, what is God doing around my unanswered prayer? Sometimes I think my prayer being answered is similar to a jigsaw puzzle. God is doing the puzzle and putting the pieces together. The issue is I can only see my piece and not the many many pieces that are going into my prayer being answered more fully than I am believing.
Some examples of this are:
- I am praying for my loved one to be saved but God is looking to bring many along with them.
- I am believing for my sickness to be healed but God needs my doctor to know He is real.
- I am believing for a new job but God knows there are people in this job that need to see a life lived for Jesus.
- I am believing for my hurt to go away but God is going a deeper work in that He is revealing the root and is slowly pulling it out.
- I am believing for finances but God is telling me to steward what I have better so that I won’t waste His increase.
These are just some of hundreds of scenarios and there are many in the Bible.
Let’s look at one which is found in 1 Samuel. Hannah had been believing for a child for a long time. She was one of two wives and the other wife already had children.
The other wife would continually taunt her and tell her that maybe God had forgotten her. Have you ever felt like that? But there came a day when desperation drove Hannah to the temple to pray again. We need to get desperate before God.
Sometimes our unanswered prayers can be wish lists and those may never be answered if it something that is going to bring us harm and sorrow. It is desperate prayers prayed in faith that get God’s attention.
She went in and knelt down and began to cry out in desperation. She was a broken woman. The priest came up and further humiliated her by stating she was drunk. Hannah, however, was not going to let anything even that, keep her from being desperate for God to answer. She answered the priest honourably and respectfully.
Then this is what he said to her in verse 17 in the Message Bible:
17 Eli answered her, “Go in peace. And may the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him.”
Hannah knew that God had heard her. Then in verse 19, it states:
Up before dawn, they worshiped God and returned home to Ramah. Elkanah slept with Hannah his wife, and God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked.
I really like the last part- God began making the necessary arrangements.
I want to encourage you and I with that statement today. Your prayer may not yet be answered but God is making the necessary arrangements. That may take a little time or a long time but God is at work.
So this week, keep praying, keep believing in faith, keep trusting God and then God will make it happen in due time.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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