This post was inspired from a conversation with my secretary this morning. She comes to me privately and shared her problem. The point is, she’s getting impatient with her problem and felt her prayer was not answered by God. He asked me what she should to do. I immediately corrected her statement that God doesn’t answer her prayer. I said to her that God always answer our prayer! God will answer our prayers with three possibilities. Yes, no, or wait!
I said to my secretary if until now our prayers have not been answered, there are three possibilities: first, maybe what we asking for are outside of God’s will. James 4:3 said: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” for example, if we ask for money and we are not already giving to our local church (Tithes) or we have not been helping the poor, why should God give us more money so that we might spend it on ourselves? Another example; 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. Our God know the best for us “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.”(Jeremiah 29:11)
The second possibility is, there is a doubt in our heart when we pray to God. We Doubts about God’s ability or willingness to answer our prayer. 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. James 1:6-8 said: “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. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
Third, it is very important to ponder. Sin! God will not answer the prayer of a believer if we are in a state of perpetual, unrepentant sin! Psalm 66:18 said: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. “ So would be better to clean up our sin first! Ask for forgiveness to God then God would answer our prayer.
The last, God also expects us to wait patiently on His perfect timing. In Hebrews 10:36, “For you has need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.” should to remember, God’s time is not our time. God has His own perfect time! We just need to be patient and persistent to pray. 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.
Then I asked my secretary to see a parable in Luke 18:1-8 which tells the persistence of a widow who ask justice against her adversary; 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.
My dear friends, maybe this time we are in the same problem with my secretary. Let us remember and ponder these; there is no prayer that not answered by God. God’s answer is always based upon His will is not on our will, and in His perfect time. We just need to wait, be patient, no doubt, never give up, ask for forgiveness if we still have unrepentant sin and do the endlessly/persistent pray . No matter the answers is Yes, No, or wait, God’s answer is always the best for us! Amen.
Prayer is the secret weapon every Christian must always use. We may always have all the armor and weapons but it won’t guarantee victory. With all this armor and weapon but without inner strength and courage to fight it’s useless. Prayer is the secret weapon that gives us the inner courage and strength to fight. Ephesians 6:18-24.(comments from http://whatthebiblesaysdoctrine.wordpress.com)
Karina
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Karina's Thought 