PRAYER TEACHES TRUST IN GOD’S TIMING
By Glenda Ward
McDowell County
The Word of God, when interwoven with prayer, serves as direction and guidance, conviction and comfort, a deterrent from sin, an escape, and a counselor. A deeper walk with Christ is evident when our first response in any situation is to seek out the advice found in God’s Word. When you pray, do not end your prayer without having aroused in your heart some feeling towards God. When after prayer you begin to read God’s Word, do not finish reading without having felt in your heart the truth of what you read. These two feelings – one inspired by prayer, the other by reading – are mutually warm to one another; and if you pay attention to yourself, they will keep you under their influence during the whole day. Take pains to practice these two methods exactly and you will see for yourself what will happen.
God’s spark, is a ray of grace that will fall at least into your heart. There is no way in which you, yourself, can produce it: it comes forth direct from God. A pattern develops when you pray for a specific request … First, pray … then wait … then receive. How you wait upon God’s timing says a lot about the depth of trust you have in God. Attitudes resulting from being impatient, nervous restlessness, running ahead of God, and not waiting for God’s signals often classify our personalities in prayer. The daily discipline of prayer teaches us to wait or trust in God’s best for us. Through your prayer journeys, you will discover that much of what you ask God for is His Will, but your timing may be wrong! Only when all the pieces slip neatly into place, can you ponder and appreciate the extra benefits of what time and waiting allowed to transpire.
Waiting and trusting and persevering in prayer, in some cases for a length of time before a specific prayer request is revealed by God, so it is in the life of the believer who prays without giving up. Though we may not receive the answer to our prayers as we had envisioned, our responsibility in prayer is to never stop waiting, trusting, praying, or expecting of God – the God of Ephesians 3:20, who does immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, to answer our request. Understanding the dynamics of persevering prayer comes only from the actual experience of praying. Only through truly waiting upon God and His response to a prayer request can one develop an inner trust in God that is sure of His provision, though the details are unseen. Patience and perseverance in prayer come only from waiting on Him. The discipline of waiting includes asking God if we are praying rightly, if we have heard His promise accurately, evaluating our motives, honestly examining if they are impure or selfish, and being able to acknowledge when our hopes are centered on something other than God’s Will. The more completely you cease being concerned about the TIME in which your prayers are to be answered, the more freedom you’ll enjoy in your prayer life!
When looking at the Word of God for real-life illustrations of those who sought God’s specific plan and received it; this provides encouragement to believe that the principle is the same for anyone who loves God and fears Him. Convinced by Scripture and personal experience, loving, revering, and obeying God is the pathway to asking for and obtaining His Will in one’s life. From one’s personal relationship with God, one gains the assurance that He indeed has a specific plan for that person’s life. (Reference Matthew 21:22).
God has a plan. This verse points to the truth. “… and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalms 139:16). May I say that when I have asked, I have always received guidance and direction (though in God’s timing), and because God has shown me the way, I know where I am going. “I have received the call, and I am following.”
During prayer, a solution to some problem that perplexes you in your spiritual life comes out of itself from an unknown source. This is the true Christian way of being taught God’s Truth. We find the promise is fulfilled in John 6:45, “…And they shall all be taught of God…”. It is that Truths are inscribed in the heart by the finger of God and remain there firm and not forgotten.
Ask for His will, and believe in what God says is yours, until you receive all that He has for you.
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Glenda Ward is a member of Grand View Baptist Church in McDowell County and is a Christian writer/author of “Something to Think About” – weekly Christian Articles. She finds purpose and joy in writing Church Programs & Bulletins, VBS Material, Christmas and Easter Programs, Memorials, and now expanding to include weekly articles to other churches, as well as writings to include Christian-based articles on Relationships in Marriage; all material based on the KJV of the Bible. From personal experience, I hope to set an example of how to serve a risen Savior and live by the Holy Spirit with joy. My goal is to help people partake of the better option in life to experience the transforming power that is available in Christ Jesus today. You can read more, good, Christian news from Glenda HERE.
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