Answered Prayers?

March 2013

People are asking God for many things every minute of every day. They ask for help with problems, they ask for guidance, they want a friend or family member to be healed from some ailment or they want to thank God for blessings received.

We know that God will answer the prayer but that answer may not be what we were expecting or wanting. God may answer ‘No’ or maybe it will be a ‘Yes’ and then there is a third optional of ‘Wait’, the time is not right. It is this third option we need to look at for a while. Why would the time not be right? The answer to that question is as varied as there are people and situations. There is one part of this, which I believe, influences God’s answer of wait. It may be easier to see if we look at a hypothetical situation of two farmers asking God to send rain to water their fields. One farmer sat and waited for the rain so he could begin tending his fields. The other farmer prayed but then went and prepared his fields so that when the rain came he would be ready for it.

Who would be more likely to receive the rain?
Putting this principle into our lives, what are we doing to be ready to receive a positive answer to our prayer? If we pray for God to send us people to teach are we actually ready to do the teaching? Do we have the knowledge? Are we ready to spend the time needed teach someone? If we pray for patience are we ready to have problems which require patience? Do we practice patience before we have a problem or a need for patience? Do we prepare ourselves for the eventuality of that difficult situation to arrive?

God is not going to give you something which you cannot cope with or are not ready to receive, so the answer to your request may be – wait. Do you still want the specific item? Then get ready for it!