Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? You know; one of those days where even ordering a cheeseburger at Wendy’s is a chore. Maybe it is more than a day. Maybe it is a week or month, or even a year. You might be thinking that God has left you or that God simply isn’t listening to your prayers.
Well I have good news and bad news for you. The Good news is that God has not left you. The bad news is that God has a different time table than we do. We are human so we want what we ask for when we ask for it. We don’t want to wait. Nobody likes to wait, although my son and several other teens have waited in line for hours just to get in to see a movie like Spiderman or Pirates of the Caribbean.
I have seen lines of people standing outside of electronics stores waiting for the new Playstation game or even longer for the latest gadget; the iPhone. People stood in line for days just to pay $600 for a phone that promised to deliver amazing things. Was it worth it? Probably not. I have heard mixed reactions. Some people love them while others think it is full of problems.
The irony of this all is that many people will wait in line for hours and sometimes days for the craziest stuff but we expect God to answer our prayers immediately and in our favor. God knows what is best for us. God will answer prayers if it fits with His will. God’s will is perfect because God is perfect. That is hard to take because we all think we know what is best for us.
I have prayed several times for something I knew didn’t line up with God’s will and each time I was certain that it would be good for me. A few times if God would have answered my original prayer, it would have been a disaster. Thankfully, God didn’t answer the prayer the way I originally presented it to Him. I am sure that you have had similar things happen to you and I hope that you were able to see how bad it would have been if God had answered that original prayer for you as well.
While there are books on prayer, I don’t believe that there is a “Secrets to Successfully Answered Prayers” guidebook. Although, I can tell you that if we are praying for something and expect an answer, we need to sit back and ask ourselves whether we are in line with God in what we are asking. Will this help to further the Kingdom or is this a selfish prayer? Obviously, if it is a selfish prayer, we need to rethink it.
“…the prayer of the upright pleases Him” – Proverbs 15:8
- YPP
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2 comments:
Dear YPP,
I totally agree with what you said and I must admit I'm not the best at being patient. Things lately have been kinda fuzzy in my life and it feels as if everything just runs together. It's so hard to be patient in life when the devil is fighting and everything feels like it's crashing down. I mean I try to be a good Christian, but I dont know how much of this I can take. I'm aware God never gives us more than we can handle and he wants me to look up to him when I'm down but it's so hard. Aound everyone else I try to act happy but I just don't know anymore.
I apologize for the massive delay here. I stopped checking this blog since the teens weren't using it. If you are still around or checking this, please accept my apology.
Patience is not easy. I certainly haven't mastered it either. Unfortunately for us sometimes, God's timing is not like ours. It is easy for us to think that He doesn't care about us if we don't get an answer right away. Sometimes that answer is not what we want to hear.
God's timing is perfect even though we don't always like it. Something that might help you is to read through the book of Psalms because it is filled with praises and frustrations of God's people. If you have fallen away from God, just stop what you are doing and pray. God is waiting for you to come back to Him if that is the case. Just call on Jesus and ask Him to take your life over and fill you with the Holy Spirit.
If you haven't slipped away, when was the last time you talked to God? When was the last time you spent time in prayer talking to Jesus about your concerns? When was the last time you gave thanks to Christ for loving you and giving His life for you?
None of this is meant to be judgmental at all. These are just things to ask yourself and look at in your life just as I must do in mine. “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive” (Matt. 21:22). The key to this is whether or not it lines up with God’s will. If we are in line with Christ, then our thoughts and desires will more easily line up with His. I hope this helps. - YPP
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