Do
you ever find yourself struggling over what you feel like is unanswered prayer?
Most of us have gone through discouraging and perhaps puzzling episodes of
unanswered prayer. Typically we begin the Christian life very optimistic about
the possibilities of prayer; then we have some disappointing experiences with
prayer and skepticism sets in. Few experiences pose a greater challenge to our
faith. Maybe you had committed yourself to pray frequently and earnestly that
God would do a certain thing for you, and because by what seemed to be
unanswered prayer, you felt like He never answered it at all or that He
answered it in a way that you were not happy with.
My own confidence or conviction that God answers prayer springs not only from
biblical teaching but from personal experience as well. But it has taken time
for that conviction to grow into a strong and abiding one; and while I still
stumble around in the waiting room of my prayers, I am confident that God will
answer them according to what is best for everyone and every situation
involved.
It’s not that God refuses to grant His children their request, nor does He not
hear them, but that He simply understands the outcome better than we do.
Appreciating this can do wonders in keeping us from losing heart when our
prayers seem to go unheeded. While it is very clear in the scripture that if we
ask it will be given to us if, we are asking it in His will, then we will not
struggle over the answers to our prayers. God’s Word also tells us to seek and
we will find. What that means is that we are to seek and search for God in our
situation while we are waiting on Him in our prayer request. "...The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availed much." James 5:16b
tells us. This verse has zeal in it, or feet you might say; because it's the
kind of faith that is going places and seeing things happen!
I agree with Andrew Murray when he said, “the thrust of the biblical promises
is that God limits much of what He does on earth to what His people are bold
enough to request through prayer.” We are to pray and to keep on praying. It is
through continuing prayer that our desires become clarified. Some grow
stronger. Others fade away and we’re grateful that God refrained from granting
them! Jesus told the parable that we might “always pray and not lose heart”
Luke 18:1. Clearly, He meant that we shouldn’t give up praying about specific
personal concerns, no matter how long it takes to receive an answer or what
that answer may be. If we hang in there, we’ll discover that God is more
abundantly willing to grant our petitions than we’ve imagined. But we must do
it His way and by doing it His way, we are granted the peace to endure the
answer, whatever it may be! Hebrews 11:6b says,"… that He is a re-warder of
them that diligently seek Him." Lord, help us to be diligent!
Hold
Fast,
-Bren
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