Living The Life of Prayer 3 God’s Response To Prayers Waiting is one of the hardest things to do in life, especially during a time of crisis. We all spend long hours in life waiting and we don’t like waiting for things. – Because we are a people of instant gratification we want everything and we usually want it now! Waiting, to me, seems to be the rule rather than the exception in life. The time between God’s call to Abraham that he was to be a father of a great nation to the birth of Isaac was 24 years. Between God’s promise that Jacob’s family would leave Egypt to become the nation of Israel was 400 years. From the time the Israelites left Egypt until they entered the Promised Land was 40 years. 1. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS IN HIS TIME Today’s society is a ‘right now’ society. We want everything in an instant, don’t we? All too often, when we pray for God’s help, we have the attitude of ‘hurry it up, God!’ We seem to forget that God knows the perfect time and the perfect way in which our prayers should be answered, and we don’t. We need to let God do His perfect work in His perfect time and stop trying to rush Him to fit into our imperfect schedules Sometimes God will answer a prayer immediately; sometimes He will just say ‘NO’, which will turn out to be the perfect answer in the long run; and sometimes, He will say,‘NOT YET.’ Luke 1:11-19 The problem with having any doubt is, it will hinder what God can do for us, and it can also hinder the blessings we could have received by having faith. In verse 13, it says that the angel told Zechariah that his prayer ‘has been heard ’. That means God had already heard Zechariah’s prayers. But, the answer did not come until now when God had everything in place for the baby to be born. They did not lose their faith in prayer, but rather they lost their patience for prayer We need to grow and be prepared before we can handle the answer to the prayers we prayed. Many times, we pray for something and then get irritated at God, wanting Him to hurry up and do what we want. We have to understand that God would love to give us what we need and what we want, but because we are sinners, sometimes he has to change us first, and that takes time. God is more interested in making us a strong Christian rather than just making our life comfortable. You must have faith that God is preparing the answer for you, and you just need to keep on praying. Pray with the knowledge that God will answer your prayers, and He will answer them in the best way for you. And remember that when God says, ‘Not yet’, that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘No’ 2. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS IN HIS WAY We talked about letting God answer our prayers in His time, not ours, but we must also realize that we must let Him answer them in His way, not ours. Isaiah 55:8 Sometimes, God wants to answer our prayer in a much bigger way than what we prayed for. His ways are so much better than our ways Ephesians 3:20 No matter what great things you have in your imagination, and no matter how grand you think the answer to your prayer will be, it is nothing compared to how much God can and wants to give you. So we need to pray with patience, having absolute faith of the outcome. We need to learn to let God choose the time and the way He answers us. After all, who are we to give direction to HIM? 3. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS FOR HIS REASONS God will answer prayers when He knows best. He will answer prayers in the way He knows best, and God will answer prayers for the reason He knows best. Paul was willing to let God answer his prayers His way. When Paul prayed, He immediately gave it over to God to from there handle. Romans 15:20 Acts 28:16 Paul was sent to Rome – as a prisoner, He was in chains, in a shipwreck, bitten by a poisonous snake and finally ended up under house arrest in Rome Why did God want Paul in Rome now and not before? Not to be the preacher in the Coliseum, but to be a writer He spent most of it writing letters to different Christians all over the Mediterranean area, encouraging them in Christ, teaching them biblical principles, and getting them organized into one united body for Jesus. God did it not in the way Paul wanted, but in the perfect way that God knew best. When we pray a Prayer that is not right, God will say “NO.” When we pray and We are not right, God will say, “GROW.” When we pray and the Timing is not right, God will say “SLOW.” But, when we pray a prayer and All is right, God will say, “GO.”