Answered Prayer
Prayer Series Part 5 – Answered Prayer
The power of love can bring happiness and can also bring sadness; it can lead you to success and can also to failure. Love has many splendor things, we do not need to be a bird to understand how they sing, and you do not need to be a butterfly to experience being a caterpillar.
(Go back to read Part 4: Posture in Praying)
The world we live in is full of love, but what kind of love? Love that our lust desires; money, position, influence, lavish lifestyle, power, and many more all are evil in disguise. True love comes from True God, and they are good and not part of what the dark side gives, which is temporal.
Prayers strengthen our hope and equip us with understanding and knowledge of Him that provided all things around us. He is the Alpha and the Omega, Which begins life on earth through His word and will also end by His word— the judgment.
You may already hear from various congregational leaders, Christian teachers, or preachers that there are ways to effective prayers. They write books and publish on social media; they have Bible studies, conventions, and many more ways to promote whatever they are trying to sell. These are just a few ways of marketing their products. How is that so?
All prayers are effective when our hearts are full of love, joy, trust, and unshaken hopes. In other words, a clean or contrite heart will not have obstructions to prayers. Answered prayer is a gift from God. He answers our prayers because of our obedience to His commandments or, in short, the “Will of God.” Follow Jesus Christ as he said, to go to your secret place and pray; are you doing that? When we communicate with the Father, have we asked God why we are making that request? Did we even thank God after we prayed?
Again, since God looks into our hearts, do we have a clean heart and courage to ask God what we request? Do we have a heart of forgiveness that is pure and without malice? Are we humble enough to his standard that He will listen to us? Have we confessed and asked for forgiveness that we have offended Him? Do we thank Him for what he has given us? We can go on and on as if there is no end to preparing ourselves to talk to God.
God knows us even before birth, but do we know ourselves as He does? We know He will never leave us nor forsake us in times of need, not in times of our wants. Therefore, when we have all these pillars of our existence, we must go in a silent room and meditate and fervently pray that we may find to know ourselves with the help of the Holy Spirit when our weakness overcomes our strength in defending our faith.
How long do we have to wait to get an answer? Can I pray and ask the same request? How do we receive His answer?
Numbers are significant in Biblical interpretations and when we apply numbers according to His perfection, prayers can be answered about His perfection. For example, the number 3, God’s divine perfection, could be used. Answers could receive three days or before the 3rd day, three weeks or before, three months or before the 3rd month three years.
There is no definite when it comes to time. God is not bound by time, nor can they be pressured due to timing. God is outside of time; God exists before time. He created time itself. He has no short or long period; to Him, they are all the same. He watches us timelessly, and there is no day or night either.
Peter said, “With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” He referenced Psalm 90:4; We are not talking about prayer can be answered up to three thousand years, which will be impossible for our borrowed vessels to last way shorter.
God is not slow to respond to our prayers.
I believe that when we ask for forgiveness, and our heart speaks the truth, the response is quick even before we finish our request; we already have it. Also, when waiting for an answer, we must try to look around, and maybe the answer is at hand.
When Prophet Habakkuk prayed about the situation of his country, he even prayed over again and asked for an answer not realizing that the answer had already been given. When you pray, believe that you receive it, and you shall have it. God of our existence can provide all the answers to all kinds of requests, all in positive ways. Sometimes a NO means a YES, but we don’t see the answer right in front of our eyes.
Prayer heals our financial worries, prosperity, health, and wealth; and heals our physical and emotional relationships with family, friends, work, and the whole nine yards. We need the patience to avoid anger and stress that will cause us to lose hope and be unhealthy. It could ruin our relationship with God that we may get to wait much longer instead of patiently waiting for answers.
Patience is a virtue. It may overcome frustration. Being impatient can draw down to spiritual struggle and may cause us to lose heart and weakens our relationship with God. We must be sincere with our prayers because sometimes our prayer requests boil down to selfishness, not selflessness, what I wanted and not what they needed, what I needed, and not what they wanted.
God spoke to Prophet Jeremiah: “do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.” Jeremiah 7:16. Some prayers need to be made directly by those in need of a favor from God and not by a third party or an intercessor such as a Saint, Priest, a Minister and that includes church prayer warriors.
Prayer must be in-line with God’s standard.
If God does not conform to our prayer, it will not be transformed, and we might end up waiting for nothing until we find out that it is on our end why our prayer is not being answered. For example, will prayer work when someone or a group of prayer warriors make a petition and the party being prayed disagrees? Isn’t it that a petition prayer is with the agreement? One of the critical factors in our prayer will be answered to let God know what we are asking and why?
Prayer heals our financial worries. It brings prosperity, health, and wealth. It heals our physical and emotional relationships with family, friends, and the whole nine yards. We need patience and to avoid anger and stress that may cause us to lose hope and lead to an unhealthy relationship with God.
Patience is a virtue that overcomes frustration.
Being impatient can lead to a spiritual struggle and might lose heart and weaken our established relationship with God. Our souls might get lost and not be able to find the right path to selflessness, and instead, we find that the spirit of selfishness has taken over. What I want and what I need is mine to keep my mindset. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples how to pray a specific and not babbling prayer, short and not long, meaningful and not lustful flowery prayer.
If we thought we could get God’s attention with many flattering words, bear in mind that God cannot be bribed.
Prayer brings us to a beautiful relationship with the LORD. We can experience our personal relationship with Him through fervent prayer, sincere and no malice, from the heart and not from the mouth. God looks in our hearts, not what we wear, not the flowery words we say, and posture, kneeling or standing, even laying or sitting, will not add flavor to His preferences and understanding of our requests.
If we believe in our hearts that there is power in prayer and worship, then say it in spirit. God is a Spirit. Through Him, in Him with Him, and upon Him, all glory can be yours through eternity as a promise that He wants us to be with Him.
“My children, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my words. Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. They are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:20-22.
Oh LORD, my LORD, I believe you and understand you, forgive me for I have sinned day after day; I am sorry for being prideful. Amen.
Continue to Read Part 6: House of Prayer
Part 1: Power of Prayers
Part 2: An Act of Obedience
Part 3: Act of Submission and Dependency
Part 4: Posture in Praying
Part 5: Answered Prayer
Part 6: House of Prayer
Part 7: In Jesus’ Name
