God's Time

“ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the  Lord , ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. (Jeremiah 33:14 NIV)

What is your favorite Bible story about answered prayer?  Perhaps it is Hannah's prayer for a child and God gives her Samuel who becomes a prophet.  Maybe it was Jacob's prayer that Esau not kill him for his terrible deceptions and God goes way beyond that and promises to make Jacob's decendants "like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted."  Or is it when the early church prays for Peter who is in jail and God sends angels to release him from his shackles so that Peter may go on to be the Rock on which the church is built.

Do you notice a theme?  When God answers prayer, it benefits more than the person praying.  A community, or the world or sometimes even all of history is affected!  Abraham and Elizabeth were given the desire of their heart... and the world was never the same again.  It happened in God's time when the most people could benefit from the answered prayer.

Perhaps that is why your prayer has not yet been answered.  God is waiting for that perfect time when even more people will benefit.  I'm not saying that your prayer may be too selfish, only that God wants to show you that we are all connected and that what we think we want only for ourselves can be an answer for many... if not all.  And I think sometimes answered prayer can be for only us.  Sometimes answered prayer is simply grace poured out.

But sometimes, waiting is the key.  Waiting for God's perfect time.  Waiting for God to be glorified in our lives and in the lives of others.  Waiting for God's good and perfect will to be fulfilled through our own imperfect, and often selfish, prayers.

I am overjoyed at the beginning of answered prayer for some friends who are seeing real progress in their son's healing from a spinal injury.  I can't wait to see how God uses this for greater good... and I know He will.  This is our Advent hope this year as we wait for God to act.

Father,
Thank you for answered prayer.  But most of all, thank you for using our little, imperfect prayers to do mighty and perfect things at just the right time for the greater good of all.  Amen.

Joys:  Exciting progress for Adam; an empty nest that rarely really seems empty at all; Erin's help with Sunday school yesterday.