I don't pray like a child.
I don't like to be annoyingly persistent or rude. If I don't get an answer right away, I just take a step back and gradually move on. After a while, it gets tiring of praying and praying and praying and praying. Not to mention that begging is impolite. I don't want to keep asking God for something that He may have already said "no" to (but I just don't know it yet). Plus, I begin to wonder if there's really a need for redundancy. God already knows what I want, right? And I've already prayed for it several times. Is there a need to continue?
Usually, I don't consciously make the choice to give up on prayer. Over time of unanswered prayer, I begin to lose all urgency or passion and, after a while, my faith kind of dies.
But the real issue is this head and heart struggle between what I know is true and what I actually believe. When Luke 11:9 says, "ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you," I know it's true. But do I believe it?
I often forget that God is my Father, and I am His child. He is a Father who delights in giving me every good thing. He desires to lavish on me every good and perfect gift!
God is good.
And He has good things in store for me because that's what He delights to do. God wants me to be persistent in my prayer life. But I give up too easily on prayer. When I don't get an immediate answer, my prayers fizzle, my faith loses fire, and my passion burns out. But this shouldn't be. The longer I'm waiting for an answer, the more persistent and aggressive my prayers should be!
Of course, God doesn't answer our prayers based on the amount of faith we exert or by how hard we pray. Sometimes He answers no, and sometimes He answers yes. My responsibility is to faithful to the God who is always faithful. He has promised to answer. And I don't want to give up. I want to pray like a little child.
Give Him time to do great things. The greater work He plans, the greater the prayer preparation that may be necessary, including prayer for guidance. God often waits so that He can be even more gracious.
—Wesley L. Duewel
The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer. —R.A. Torrey
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oh i can not tell you what an encouragement this post was to me! i have often been in this position before, praying endlessly for God to answer me, but losing hope when it seems as though i don't hear anything. but sometimes, the answer has been there all along, without me even opening my eyes to realize it. btw, that picture gave me sooo much hope too. i recently lost my grandma to a massive heart attack and it's encouraging to know that God is with me in the midst of this--that His love never fails <3
ReplyDeletehope you have an amazing week, girl!
~Chelsea<3
i agree with you completely! it's rough waiting- i of all people know that. but i also know that God's timing is sooooooo much better than mine! His plans aren't ours and His ways aren't either. thank goodness! my life would be a total flop.
ReplyDelete"for everything there is a season.."
:))