Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6 ESV)
It’s not uncommon for members of our congregation to tell me about their prayers being answered. What they mean is the “thing” they have been praying for has come to pass, and thus they say, “God has answered my prayers!” Here’s what we all need to remember: God answers ALL prayers. I pray you will find cosmic comfort in what follows.
All prayers are answered instantly by God with one of three responses: “Yes” … “No” … or “Wait.” Now, we all recognize God’s “Yes” responses, but what about the other two? You may remember the apostle Paul’s prayer about a thorn that was tormenting him. Paul prayed — not once, but three times — that God would take this thorn away from him, and three times God said “No.”
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)
Was Paul’s prayer answered? Of course it was . . . but not in the way he wanted it to be. God said “‘No” because He had something much better in store for Paul, which was a sufficient amount of grace to help Paul mature and grow with the thorn, not without it.
I will confess to you that “Wait” has often been more difficult for me to deal with than “No.” I don’t do well in waiting rooms! But God, in His perfect providence, is working in our lives, conforming us to the image of His beloved Son so that we can live out His command to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). Because our God is so loving and gracious, waiting is His way of growing our joy in hopefulness, growing our patience in our pain, and growing our faithfulness in our prayers.
So regardless of where this message finds you today, let these words bring you cosmic comfort. You can be sure that God is at work in your life, no matter which answer He has given you to any particular prayer. As you look back over your life, I am sure you can recall some prayers you fervently wanted God to answer with a “Yes,” and today you are deeply grateful that He said “No.” And as for those prayers that God finally did answer with “Yes,” but were preceded by “Wait” for a time — perhaps even a very long time — can you not see how God had to make you ready to receive the answer you were looking for?
The key to living out the truth of our verse for today is to simply trust the infinite wisdom of our God in answering our prayers, even when we cannot trace His hand with our finite understanding. God truly knows what is best, and He will always deliver it to us for His glory and our ultimate good.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 