I've long heard people talking about not receiving an answer to their prayers. They talk about how they've prayed the same prayer time after time and meditated, waiting to hear an answer from God but have received nothing. The truth is there is no such thing as an unanswered prayer. God always answers, and His answers can range from "yes" to "not now" to "no", but we tend to declare our prayers unanswered unless we hear "yes".
Many times we get something other than what we asked for in prayer, but we consider the prayer unanswered because we didn't receive what WE thought we should. We pray for the healing of a family member or friend and when they pass away we declare that God didn't answer our prayer; truth be told, He gave our loved one the ultimate healing: they will never know sickness or death again. He answered our prayer with His wisdom and His will rather than ours but we can't see it because He didn't give us our loved one back in perfect health.
I've been standing on God's promise for something for more than 10 years on one thing and more than 20 years on another. Both of these issues line up with God's Word, but I haven't received what I've requested, yet. Does that mean He hasn't answered? No! I have received His answer. On the first thing He's provided an alternative, but since what I'm asking is a sincere desire of my heart, I continue to ask Him to grant me my request, in specific. On the other, His answer has been, and continues to be, "not now". In the meantime, He's provided relief, though it's not the total relief or complete fulfilling of my request. But He has answered!
We need to learn to listen to God and hear Him when His answer is "no" or "not right now". Our lives would be much better if we would.
No comments:
Post a Comment