Have you ever prayed relentlessly to God for something and feel as if your petitions were left unheard?
My son asked me one day to buy him a new video game. Unbeknownst to him, I had already bought him what he wanted but I put it away in the closet. Being his parent, I perceived what I bought would be quite enjoyable for him based on his interests. I intended to give him what he asked for, long before he even asked.
It’s amazing how God has already planned and set for us in granting our heart’s desires and other petitions but have us wait for His appointed time to receive it when He deems us ready. We are mere creatures of the one true and supreme God and there is no way we should expect God to act to fulfill our wishes in our own timetable especially when He is omniscient and knows what is and what is not good for us.
I don’t consider myself anything special that God should favor me in any way, but I can honestly say that God truly answers prayers. Countless times have I cried out to the Lord and never once has He let me down. There are just times when it is so surreal even when I find myself treading towards a distant land, He never stops wooing me to come back to Him. I at one point found myself telling God I’m not going to wait for Him to try to get my attention by way of some traumatic means in order to seek His face.
One might think with all of our backsliding and wayward moments He would ignore our requests for help but He never fails to come to our rescue. It is such a sweet and surreal experience of God’s expression of unconditional love, the blessing of an obvious answer to prayer.
As Jesus says in Matthew 7-11,
“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
We are to persistently ask God for righteous requests with no hesitation. As long as we know it is not against His will (don’t expect to get selfish requests answered such as a life in the lap of luxury and any other requests with wrong motives), it is not a matter of whether or not He will answer our prayer. It is a matter of when the manifestation of the answer to your petition will occur.
My son came to me again with his request. I have not denied it. I have not divulged my intent but if only he knew that it already has been granted; I am waiting for the time I purposed to give it to him.