Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 71

Answered Prayers continued...

Lamentations 3:25-26, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

We cannot grow impatient with God. Yes, sometimes we are tempted to do so, at other times even encouraged by men who have no understanding of God or His word, but we must always remember that the Lord is good to those who wait for Him.

Seek the Lord, hope in the Lord, and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Salvation will come! Your prayer will be answered because God is good, and compassionate, and merciful.

Often we equate God with man, and begin to grow despondent when He hasn’t answered a prayer the first hour, day, or week after we’ve prayed it. We begin to think that like ourselves, God is somehow forgetful, preoccupied, or unfocused.

He sees all things and He remembers all things. God remembers every prayer you’ve ever prayed, the passion and fervor you prayed it with, the length of your prayer, the cadence of your prayer, and even where you were when you prayed it. God’s memory is not like man’s memory, and if you prayed a prayer, be certain He remembers it, and at the appointed time He will answer it.

Job 35:14, “Although you say you do not see Him, yet justice is before Him, and you must wait for Him.”

Waiting on God is not an option - it is a necessity. Even though you might not see it in the natural, the justice of God is before you, and you must wait for Him. Some things are repeated often because they are true and the saying ‘God is never late’ is one such thing. To those of us waiting on the justice of God, to those of us waiting for a prayer to be answered, it always seems like a lifetime between when we petition God and when He answers us.

Although none of us can prove it, we can all sense that sometimes time seems to slow down and speed up depending on our situation. Go somewhere nice and warm where you don’t have to worry about anything for a few days, and the time seems to whizz by at lightning speed. Have a few days of spring cleaning on the roster however, and time seems to crawl by, each minute more excruciating than the last.

Time seems to slow for us when we are waiting on God to answer a prayer, but always remember: His justice is before you, and you must wait for Him.

Being the helpful folk that we are, every one of us has tried to ‘help’ God answer our prayers, or ‘aid’ Him in responding positively to our petitions.

I have been guilty of it just as I am certain most everyone else has, but it is a practice we must learn to do away with.

God doesn’t need my help in answering my prayer. He doesn’t need my assistance, He doesn’t need my guidance, He doesn’t need me to cheer Him on, and He doesn’t need me to make observations.

I must pray in faith, and wait on Him to answer my prayer. That’s it!

Yes, be persistent in your prayers. Yes, be sincere, and passionate, but don’t attempt to aid God in answering your prayer or strike out on your own thinking you know better than God.

As is often the case, when we pray for something then set about trying to fix the issue on our own, we end up inching deeper into the quicksand than we were when we petitioned God to save us. As the tried and true saying goes, ‘I don’t come to your place of employment and tell you how to do your job.’

Let God be God! He’s better at it than you will ever be. He knows what He must do, He knows when He must do it, and when we try to step in and do it on His behalf we’re just complicating the situation.

When you go to the doctor with an ache or a pain you tell him where it hurts, and let him go about his business, taking blood, taking your blood pressure, tapping different areas and asking if it hurts or if it’s tender. After the doctor is done with his examination, he comes up with a diagnosis, and prescribes the requisite treatment. (I’m supposing this is how it works, I haven’t been to a doctor since my mom last took me, and I was eight years old then. I had my tonsils taken out and I got free ice cream afterwards.)

There are certainly those who go to the doctor, whom with the aid of Google and a little free time have ‘self-diagnosed’ and are just looking for a confirmation, only to have their career as a diagnostician threatened by being told it isn’t really scurvy. (From what I hear, doctors love those kinds of people.)

You don’t go to a barbershop and start cutting your own hair; you don’t go to a doctor and start lancing your own boil; you don’t go to a mechanic and start fixing your own car; and you don’t go to God with your petitions then attempt to answer your own prayer.

Yes, I said it once already in today’s writing but it is imperative we allow it to sink deep in our hearts and take root there, so I’ll repeat myself: let God be God. Wait on the Lord, for He is good to those who wait for Him, and to the soul who seeks Him.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.