We live in a very ‘instant’ society and we’ve come to expect that everything we desire, must be in our hands in a very short time. When things don’t happen according to the way we want it, or take a long time to happen, we get upset and impatient. Why is that? Well it’s because we fall into a place of fear – fear that things will get out of our control and we’ll not have solutions for our situations. So really, what we are feeling is fear and anxiety – not impatients. The anxiety being caused by the fear.
God wants us to talk to Him because He so desires to have a relationship with us. Let’s look at this example:
Imagine children asking their parents for something and the parents give it to them immediately? As the child asks again, the parent gives what they want. Every time the children ask, their parents oblige. What will those children have learned? They will have learned that their parents will give them whatever they want, whenever they want it. How will the children ever learn to look after themselves? How would they grow and develop into adults who can take care of themselves and their own families?
The relationship between child and parents will become pretty much a ‘one-way street’ of asking and giving.
God wants us to ask Him for our needs (not so much our wants – but our needs!). He also wants to hear how we feel about issues and how we are currently feeling in our hearts. (John 15:5) As we share these intimate feelings and opinions with Him, our relationship becomes a ‘two-way street’. (Matt.6:8) We may say “but God knows how I feel and what my needs are…” and yes He does – but He wants to hear it from us personally, because this is how we build our relationship with Him and so, we get to KNOW Him.
Why do we ask God to help us with things and situations in our lives? Surely it’s because we believe that He can answer them – right? – If we didn’t believe He could answer those things, we wouldn’t ask Him – correct?
So how can we build that ‘two- way street relationship? Well – very simply we build it by trusting God for the answers to our requests.
Jer 29:12-13 – The scriptures tell us that God hears our prayers. In the book of Matthew, Jesus encourages us to keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking (Matt 7:7)
Acts 10:4 – Paul tells us in the book of Acts that our prayers stand before God as a memorial – now that is amazing – our prayers standing before God for eternity, ready to be used by Him when and where He desires!
So if we can trust God enough to ask for things and interventions, then we need also, to learn to trust Him for the outcomes of our requests. Keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking and THEN, keep trusting Him for the outcome.
We would all like God to answer our prayers immediately, that’s why we always pray in a rush – because we want things NOW.
God sometimes answers prayer immediately, but other times He will answer according to how He feels it will help us best – in His time.
Dan 10:12-13 – Sometimes the answers to our prayer requests get caught up in the spiritual war in the heavenly’s and it takes time for the answers to reach us, as was the case with Daniel in this scripture.
Remember – it’s not that God gets some kind of joy out of us being anxious over the answers to our prayers – no – not at all – He’s simply teaching us to trust Him while we wait for the answers. As we keep praying and keep trusting Him for the outcome, we will grow closer to Him day by day.
God is hearing us – rest assured of that.
He’s going to answer our prayers according to His Will for us – rest assured of that.
and finally, trust Him for the outcome and rest assured!
Be blessed, as we wait on God to see the outcome of our requests. Until we meet again soon – may He bless you all.