Today I’m taking a break from sharing kid activities to share what’s on my heart. It’s something that I feel led to share with you!
We all have something in our lives that requires us to wait. Sometimes it’s something simple, like waiting for the power to come back on (like we did last night during a blizzard). Other times, it’s something major — a diagnosis or waiting for a cure. Maybe it’s waiting for a future spouse, getting pregnant, or even just to have a good friend. A lot of times, we can’t understand why God is silent…and why it seems like He isn’t listening to our prayers. It’s frustrating. We pour out your prayers day after day after day…and still it seems like God is not at work. What is God doing?
God uses waiting and trials to refine our faith and bring us closer to Him.
I’ve felt these emotions this past year when we were selling our home. It seemed to take forever! We were following what God had for us, but He wasn’t providing a way for us to leave our current home. We knew that God was calling us elsewhere because God opened up doors for my husband to accept a job in a different city. It seemed impossible for him to get the job, but he got it! We knew this was God leading us to move. But still, we had to sell our house. Our first step was trying to sell it by owner for about 6 weeks. The first gal that looked at it was super interested and told me she fell in love with the house…she even cried when she told me how much she loved it! We thought for sure that God was answering our prayers there…and a bonus was that we wouldnt have to pay realtor fees! But, God closed that door. She decided on a different home. So after no luck trying to sell by owner, we got a realtor. I won’t share everything that happened, but basically we waited 7 months and realized it was time to move where my husband works. With winter weather coming up, we wanted to be close to his work. So we took a leap of faith and moved out of our home while still trying to sell it. I kept thinking — Come on now, God. What are you waiting for? I totally trust in you, but it would be so nice if you could just answer this small request.
I vividly remember the day God answered this prayer request. I was laying in bed miserable from morning sickness when I got an email from our realtor. We had an offer! And I had no clue that anyone was even looking at our home! So 10 months of waiting and God answered at an unexpected time. I know, that may not seem like a long time, but it felt like a long time to us!
From this period of waiting, I realized two things:
1. It is hardest to accept the waiting parts of life.
2. God’s timetable is often different from ours.
You see, I realized that God’s timing was perfect. Looking back, he allowed a buyer to come when we were ready financially to close on the home. We learned a lot about waiting during this process. We praise God for answering our prayers and I thank you for praying for us!
And I also realize that sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want them to be answered, and that is very hard to accept. However, He doesn’t abandon us, but He promises to take care of our needs.
Lastly, I want to share a quote from Elisabeth Elliot. I love her book Secure in the Everlasting Arms. I’ve read it multiple times and am always encouraged when I read it.
Have you experienced a time in your life where you waited? If so, I would love to hear about it. You can comment here or even email me if you’d like.
I pray that you all feel God’s peace today as you start a brand new week!
teachingmama.org
by Kembert (Barbados)
Almighty God we come at this time in Thanksgiving, Praise and Preayer . We thank you Lord for your past Blessings we praise and magnify your name and all of your heavenly host. As we come to you again dear Lord God you know our needs and we look to you to help us meet our working and financial commitments, Dear Lord you know the many people who are looking to me for help, please Lord help me not to dissipoint them much longer but please come to my assistance so that they can be happy.
Please Bless me with this request dear Lord God in the name of your son Jesus Christ I pray asking your forgiveness where and when I have gone wrong.
Father Jesus please help those who cry out to you for help you know dear Lord that you are the only one who can help please dear Lord God hear, help and Bless them and us as we call in the name of Jesus Christ and all of your Heavenly host. Dear Lord please come to us quickly as we wait upon your help .
Return to Roman Catholic Prayers
www.praywithme.com
QUESTION: How can I keep faith while waiting on God to answer prayers?
ANSWER:
Growing up, I often asked myself impatiently, “How can I keep faith while waiting on God to answer prayers?” As I have grown older (and hopefully wiser), God has shown me through His Word how to wait on His timing.
Only God can see the big picture. He has planned out everything to intertwine perfectly in the end. Part of His plan includes working through our prayers. We pray, yet we doubt He hears us. He has promised, however, to hear His children.
Although He hears us, He doesn’t always give the response we expect or the answer on our timetable. I prayed twelve years for my son to return to the Lord. Every day, I prayed, believing God heard and would answer. My sovereign God used those twelve years to work in my son’s heart and bring him back into the fold. In a human’s eyes, twelve years seem an awfully long time to wait. In God’s eyes, it is a breath (2 Peter 3:8). His time is not our time.
When waiting on God to answer prayers, we must believe God will answer. Unbelief is the biggest obstacle to overcome in praying and waiting. “But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7).
While waiting on God to answer prayers, take stock of your blessings. Are you breathing? Then, rejoice in life! Do you see the blue sky or even a cloudy one? Thank God for the ability to see. Can you hear the sound of the wind blowing through the trees or a child laughing? Praise God for hearing! Turn the wait into a treasure hunt for the blessings that we often take for granted. For remembrance, keep a prayer journal, listing all your prayers with the date of request. Frequently lift up the requests to God, and record the date you received an answer.
Never forget that answers come in God’s time — not ours. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” God has promised His own a hopeful future. Rest in God’s faithfulness. He will answer you.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
– We have all
sinned
and deserve God’s judgment.
God
, the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him.
Jesus
, the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He
died
for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was
buried
, and
rose from the dead
according to the
Bible
. If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving Jesus alone as your
Savior
, declaring, “
Jesus is Lord
,” you will be saved from
judgment
and spend eternity with God in heaven.
What is your response?
Yes, today I am deciding to follow JesusYes, I am already a follower of JesusI still have questions
www.allaboutprayer.org
Why would God wait to answer our prayers? Wouldn’t we expect that since God is all-powerful that He would answer immediately? What is the purpose for God’s delaying our prayer requests?
Table of contents
Outside of God’s Will
One reason that God may not answer our prayers or that He waits is that we are asking for the wrong thing. We may be asking for something that is not in God’s will for our lives and we might be asking for selfish reasons. James, the half-brother of Jesus wrote, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”(James 4:3). For example, if we ask for money and we are not already giving to our local church or we have not been helping the poor, why should God give us more money so that we might spend it on ourselves? Also, we might have the wrong motives in asking for something. If we ask for a better job, the job that we think would be better may actually be worse than the job we have now. God is sovereign and He knows what is best, and holds our best interests in mind for our future (Jer. 29:11).
In the Lord’s Prayer, we are to ask that His will be done on earth just as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). We know that God’s will for believers is to grow in grace and knowledge, so we can ask for spiritual understanding of His Word just before we read the Bible. There is confidence in praying when we know His will for out lives as it says in I John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
We must remember to pray with faith.
Doubt
When we pray, we may have serious doubts about God’s ability or willingness to answer our prayer. James 12:6-7 indicates that if we pray in doubt, God will not honor our requests saying, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” God may be waiting for us to pray in real faith, in expectation of receiving an answer, or to see if we are serious enough to continue to pray for it.
Sin Stops Prayer From Being Answered
God will not answer the prayer of a believer if they are in a state of perpetual, unrepentant sin (I Pet. 3:12). Psalm 66:18 is clear that “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.“ If we are obedient, He will hear our prayers (John 15:7) but if we are unforgiving, He will refuse our petitions before His altar (Matt. 18:35). Matthew 5:24 is says that when we fail to forgive others, this is cause for a failed request for His help, “leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
Prayer is Answered in God’s Timing
God also expects us to wait patiently on His perfect timing (Psalm 66:18). In Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.” The minor prophet, Habakkuk speaks for all of us when he grew impatient in waiting for God to answer his request in 1:2, “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” I can most certainly identify with Habakkuk in his sentiments. Psalm 37 is a great Psalm to read when you are seeking the desires of your heart with the realization that it may take some time. Read these key verses from Psalm 37 on waiting:
7 “Rest before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not worry when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.“
25 “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”
34 “Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.”
Sometimes the desires of our heart take time. They do not happen overnight. God is most often at work when He appears to be the most silent. Even though Daniel had to wait three weeks before his prayer was answered, God had actually answered his prayer that very day that he prayed. Don’t think that since God does not immediately reveal to you His answer, that He has not answered it and has not answered it right away. Daniel had his prayer answered the very same day of his request but it took three weeks for God’s sovereign timing for it to reach him – and it did at exactly the right time, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them”(10:12).
Stories of Waiting For Prayer To Be Answered
Don’t ever give up on praying. God shows us that persistence pays off in Luke 18:1-8, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The point of this parable is that if we continue steadfastly in prayer God will honor that persistence. Never give up on praying because God may be waiting to see if it is important enough to us to continue in prayer, day and night, day after day.
I heard the story of a faithful mother who had been praying for 28 years for her son to come to faith in Christ. Year after year her son was rebellious. He abused drugs, was in and out of jail, and showed no signs of ever knowing Christ. The days and years dragged on with absolutely no indication that there was anything different in the man‘s life. Then one day, 28 years after his mother first prayed for him, this man came to a saving faith in Christ. Today this man, Terry Williams, uses his testimony to help other prison inmates find their way to a relationship with the only One Who can save: Jesus Christ. What if this mother had given up? What if she decided it was not important enough to keep praying each and every day? What a difference this mother made in her steadfast prayers due to her undying love for her son. Today her son is making an eternal difference for others in prison. This was all due to prayer. Even though she had to wait
Another article you might be interested in:
Does God Answer The Prayers of Unbelievers?
Resources
NIV Bible
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Share this post
: | | | |
www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com
