Do you wait for an answer?
Imagine a conversation with yourself and someone else. This person is going through some issues and they need your help. Oh course you're more than willing to help, and in fact can help too. They start off with the usual conversational pleasantries, and then go full fledge into their needs and the issues, and how they need you to help. Each time you're about to answer them they just continue to talk and talk over you; even though what you're trying to say can and will help them. It's annoying right? Sound familiar?
Well it does to me.
This isn't a shady post - this is sometimes how we pray to our heavenly Father. We know that He is the creator, in ultimate control and all things will work
out for those that love Him (Romans 8:28), and we are to be in constant communication with him. But do we give him a chance to even answer? We (and when I say we I include myself) want an answer straight away, don't like waiting. We don't like waiting in queues, we don't like waiting for our food, we don't like waiting for the endings of things - raise your hand f you've ever skipped to the end of a book to see how it ends before you've even bought the book...just me? Oh ok...moving on. Why is it that we don't like to wait? Waiting makes us practice patience - also called long-suffering in Ephesians - why would anyone want to go through long-suffering please? It sounds horrible so why would we actively do it when instead we could just do what we want straight away?
You know when you’re in a rush to get somewhere but it just feels like everything is slowing you down? You can’t find your keys that you left in the place you always do, you forgot to pick up xyz, and you have to go back for it. When you finally get on your way there’s traffic and now its frustrating because you’ll be late to where you’re heading. On the way however you notice there has been an accident and would you have gone at the time you wanted to go - you could have been involved in it. This problem with doing what we want straight away is that we don't always see what goes ahead of us. We want to get to the destination so bad, we even ignore the warning signs along the way to slow down, change direction or even that where we are heading is a dead end; yet we go foot on the accelerator to get what we want fast. For the non-drivers reading this, it’s like when you’re at the pedestrian crossings and the little man is on red but you think you can just quickly run across to the other side, by the time you think to do that, a car you didn’t see before suddenly comes out of nowhere flying past you - close call there aye?
Now I know faith without works is dead (so we should act right?); but we should also listen for the directions first (James 2:26, Proverbs 1:7). Have you ever bought a flat pack piece of furniture? Without the instructions and following those carefully, you'll find yourself in a predicament where it either doesn't look correct or it falls apart. It is important that we go through the instructions in order and build the furniture up correctly so it will last. I have found that I found "Life Instructions" in many places and that the living word of God comes from various places. Oh, of course we have the Bible, but I've found He has spoken on situations through other people in conversation, where they knew nothing about what I'm going through, where I felt I couldn't see a way out and yet the voice of wisdom came so crystal clear.
In silent moments in the day or at night, I'll have a worship song playing in my head and I can't shake it, or I feel compelled to just dance and sing - just to worship God, and in that worship time answers to prayers spoken and unspoken are answered. The power that comes from just waiting on Him to answer not only amazes me, but reminds me every time - HE IS IN CONTROL. The hour of silence at Headstart (week of prayer) has proven to be so powerful. At first I thought yeah I MIGHT hear from God, and He MIGHT give me answers for situations or what my heart desires. I was floored when by the end of 60 minutes of no noise, no talking, no music, just silence - He spoke over me so clearly it was undeniable that it was Him answering me. We were encouraged to have a pen and paper ready to write down what God says to us - and after the first A4 side was full, and I was moving onto the next side, I was astonished at how much He had to say to me. So, sometimes your prayer time can just be a time to just reflect, meditate on His word and just wait for His voice.
Take an hour out of a day this week, just to wait on God. It doesn't have to be in pure silence, sometimes just reflection, worship or praising Him for who He is, you'll find in waiting you'll get your answers.
Empress Nae
June'20