Prayer Time

How many times are your prayers answered?

So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. - Luke 11:9-10

We tend to remember our failures and not so much our successes.  The same is true, I think, with prayers answered and prayers ignored.

I believe we are not always the best judge of success.  We are too emotionally involved with the situation to be able to determine just how God is answering our prayers.

Sometimes, as Jesus points out when explaining prayer to his disciples, we have to keep at it, praying over and over to God.

It is not that He wants to ignore us.  But we shouldn't give up hope; we should not stop trying.

If I look back at how my prayers have been answered, I find the solution to the problem was not always what I was expecting.  Sometimes God gives us wisdom and strength to deal with the issue, rather than interceding to make the problem disappear.

That may not be the type of help I wanted, but it is an answer to my prayers.  To see it as a blessing, I need to look back and think about how it has helped me in the long run.

God has the big picture in sight, while we are struggling to manage the details, so it is easy to draw the conclusion that He is not listening, when we are not seeing.

So, the message is never stop praying, and never lose hope.  Believe and it shall come to be, even though it may not be the way you imagined.

Thank God.

More to come...