Don’t Give Up Too Soon

 Have you ever had to wait for the cable guy or other utility personnel to show up to your house between the hours of 8:00 and 5:00? You waited the entire day but had to leave at 4:45, and they showed up at 4:50. Aggravating, isn’t it?

Life as a Christian can be the same. We are praying for our families, friends, or personal situation, and nothing seems to be happening. Nothing is changing. The problems still exist. The ailment has not been healed. So…we stop praying. We give up.

Raise your hand if that is you. Don’t be shy about it. No one can see you. If someone is watching, he or she may think you’re having a worshipping moment. I’m raising my hand because that is certainly me. 

It’s really hard being honest about my failure as a praying Christian. We want our prayers to be answered according to our schedules and to our desires. But, what if we’re not praying long enough? Exactly how long is enough? Long enough is God’s timing not ours.

Daniel from the Bible prayed fervently for 3 weeks before he received an answer to his prayers (Daniel 10). 

Hannah prayed for years for a child before her prayers were answered (1 Samuel 1).

Just because GOD does not answer our prayers immediately does not mean HE isn’t listening or responding.

It isn’t only how long we pray but how we pray that is important.

  • Will the answered prayer glorify GOD (John 14:13) or is it selfish (James 4:3)?
  • When we pray, are we putting others first (Proverbs 21:13) or only focusing on ourselves?
  • Is our prayer life a hobby or a lifetime commitment? (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

The last question hit me the hardest, slap dab in the middle of my forehead. (If I’m being honest.)

Besides understanding how long and how often we should pray (continuously) and how we should pray (glorifying GOD), we must also understand the possible answers to our prayers: yes, no, wait.

We won’t discuss the yes answers because that’s easy. The no answer is hard, but GOD always has a purpose and reason for the no. Think back to Garth Brooks’ song, Unanswered Prayers. AND just because we get a no on a prayer does not mean we should stop praying altogether.

For this microwave generation, waiting on a prayer to be answered can be the hardest. There is a purpose in the waiting. The waiting helps grow our faith in GOD. It helps mature our faith. Is GOD being glorified in the waiting? What are you doing during the waiting-time? Celebrating GOD’s love and grace or having a pity party, lamenting the lack of answers? 

If you’ve followed this blog from the beginning, you know my situation, my loss of vision. But…what have I been doing in the meantime as I wait on GOD’s answers and plans? I keep on keeping on. I haven’t stopped working. I haven’t stopped going to church. I haven’t stopped helping others. I haven’t stopped going on mission trips. I believe GOD is working through my vision impairment in a way I would not have done if I had remained visually fine.

Does this mean my prayer life is perfect? Nope. GOD has convicted me of that today. I had been praying for a miraculous change in someone’s life. That the person would understand the need to change how they handled anger and rages, but there had been no changes. So…I just stopped praying. I definitely did not practice 1 Thess. 5:17. Have you ever stopping praying for someone because you did not see any evidence of an answered prayer? 

Don’t give up too soon. GOD’s timing is perfect even when we are not. We do not know what HE is doing behind the scenes or what evilness is being fought. Read Daniel 10 about what caused Daniel not to receive a response for 3 weeks. If that was happening then, it is definitely happening now.

After we pray and while we pray, let’s thank GOD for the prayer being answered. Thank GOD for the blessings already in our lives. Thank GOD for sending HIS SON for us and for the HOLY SPIRIT now. Believe it or not, we do have more things to be thankful for than to worry about.

Thank you for reading and GOD bless you and yours.

PB

Tasha Layton: Worship through It. https://youtu.be/cBw1ZmBi7ZI


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