Answered Prayers

God answers all prayers; no single prayer remains unanswered.  

This thought was as dim as a starless night for me. But as I study the Word and continue to listen to prayer exhortations Wednesday after Wednesday in our prayer meetings, this has become my dawn, the coming of light—toward a clearer day.

Every chance we get, we who believe in prayer earnestly ask for what we want, what we think should belong to us.  We pray for whom we want healed, whom we want touched and stirred, whom we want changed. Our pryers are often about what we want.

So when we prayed for healing for my friend Fely and she was indeed healed, we rejoiced, “Hallelujah, answered prayers!” We prayed for the same exact healing for my friend Sonia, but the Lord took her anyway. And it had nothing to do with faith—we had faith in the God who healed Fely. 

But contrary to what we thought, that wasn't unanswered prayer at all. God gave us, her friends and family, hearts to accept Sonia's early death. His answer to our collective prayers,  “No, she won't stay on Earth a minute longer. I want her here where life is perfect and everlasting.”     

Just as we answer the people around us with either a “No, I can't come home'” or “Maybe my boss will allow me to come home;” or “Yes, I am coming home next week!” so does God, especially God.

He does not always grant our requests even if they are honorable and true. He is not a genie whom we can coax into granting our wishes. He has authority over all things—the latitude to answer our pleas according to His will.

Our assurance: even if don't get the outcome of what we desperately payed for, His love for us abounds.

If what we've praying for years and years has not happened, and is unlikely to happen, God may already have said, “No,” but we are too blinded or stubborn to see it.  Or we prefer to be in a state of denial and continue praying for the same thing. 

This is my third post on prayer this month, my fourth since I started blogging, and I thank God for taking away my blinders and for His grace for me to slowly understand what a prayer life should be. 

Though he knows what is in our mind, He invited us to pray—to participate in this act of humility, of acknowledging His sovereignty, and of wanting to be led by His spirit to be One with Him, and to totally surrender to His will for our life.