Have you been praying and praying
for something only to feel like God’s not listening?
We’ve all been there. So what’s up with that? Where is He?
Isn’t it funny we never question whether God hears our praise and adoration, but always question if he hears when we’re asking for something? We’re so geared for empirical results – “Show me the money!” “Rain down some fire!” “Get me outta here!”
We have to see to believe and unless it happens our way, it’s not happening at all.
The truth of the matter is that God always answers. And his answers come in three ways: “Yes.” “No.” And “Not yet.” In fact, He may have already answered and you don’t recognize it as an answer because you were looking for something else.
We see in the Bible that a lot of Jews in Jesus’ time were looking for a Messiah. But they wanted military and political power, so they were looking for the wrong guy. They didn’t recognize the King of Kings who was ushering in an eternal, spiritual kingdom when he was right in front of them.
Here’s the underlying truth we have to constantly keep in mind: God is always going to answer our prayers in the manner that is best for our eternal salvation.
For example, let’s say you’re praying for a new job or promotion. But God knows it’s going to take you away from your family too much. He knows your spouse and kids will suffer in your absence, so He may say “no” or “not yet.”
Like any good parent (and He’s the best Dad ever), He wants to prepare us for the future – which with Him is eternity.
Have you ever felt like God didn’t hear your prayer, only to have him come through later? Or maybe you later realized that what he wanted was better? Leave a comment and tell us about it.
And if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to sign up to receive a FREE copy of my talk “Writing Straight With Crooked Lines: How God Saves You Even If You’ve Been Really Bad.” (It applies to those of you who have been only slightly bad, too:).
