19^th June

“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Have you ever stopped and wondered about the prayers you may have prayed a long time ago but have never seen a tangible answer to? Well the good news is that God never forgets. We can be encouraged that when we pray in faith our prayers will always be answered. It may not be the answer you might want to hear but God will always answer. A lot of the time the answer is to wait and keep on praying, being joyful and thankful always.

I recently received news of an answered prayer, after many years of tears and mourning, pleading with God for this situation to change, finally I heard of good news. Yet in the waiting I learned an important lesson. God never forgets our prayer requests and He always answers. Sometimes we try to fit God in our own little box and demand He answers us immediately. We think if we keep on praying we can twist God’s arm and He will get so fed up of listening to our prayers that He will have to answer us. Yet this is not true.

Waiting for God is an important Spiritual discipline. It helps us to recognise God’s sovereignty and our position in trusting in Him. Of course, sometimes God does answer immediately and we can see the fruit of that answered prayer. But when He doesn’t, it is our role to be joyful and thankful in waiting and to not stop praying. Ceaseless prayer allows us to continuously surrender our concerns and worries to God, and stops us from trying to solve the problem on our own. It shows we are completely trusting in God for an answer and fully trust Him to guide our lives. Our hope remains in Him and not in us trying to fix everything.

Never stop praying. Never stop trusting. Never stop giving thanks…. An encouragement for us all.