The Hand of God

Do you ever get impatient with God? I think we all have had times when we wonder if He is ever going come through and answer our prayers. One thing I can promise you and I know is true from personal experience: God is always on time in His time.

When you are waiting on God to answer a prayer, I have found that there are many reasons why God may be delaying the answer. Here are just a few of the reasons:

  • What you prayed for is really not in your best interest or in the best interest of those involved. This one takes a lot of faith, but we have to trust that God knows what He is doing.
  • What you prayed for is not in His will…period. We often pray for something that is just selfish or self-serving. God knows our hearts. He knows that if He gave some of us what we asked for that it would be a disaster not just for us but for everyone around us.
  • We often forget that God is orchestrating things not just for us…but for all mankind. It is not just about us, and when He does move it affects many people.
  • God may be testing your faith to see if you really believe that He will do what He says He will do. No better way to test it than to delay the answer. Do you complain about the delay or do you praise Him in the midst of the storm?
  • We forget that God does not work around time. He is eternal. Time is something that was created for us and I believe one of the primary reasons was to let us know how short our time is here on Earth and to use it wisely.
  • Waiting on God requires faith, humility, and patience. We have to learn to trust God regardless of what we see and how we feel. That is pretty difficult for us because we have a microwave mentality…and God is a slow cooker (at least in our judgement).
  • God is not a genie in a bottle that we can summon on command and “poof” He grants our wishes. The closer our hearts and minds come to being Christ-like, the more we come to understand the significance in the simple command: Trust and obey.
  • God may be withholding an answer because of strife between you and someone else. If you have unresolved conflict with someone, do your best to resolve it. Forgive them and let them know you want to make things right with them. God is all about relationship. How can we come to Him and ask His help if we are ignoring one of his primary directives….to love one another?

God will move when the time is right. Trust that. Praise Him and trust in Him. Remember all of the things that God has done for you in the past. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves, and that is a great reason to keep a prayer journal. Some of us suffer from selective memory.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

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