He Answer Your Prayer

Often when we ask a question, we anticipate the answer. We already have in mind what the response to our question should be. But it happens very often, too, that the answer we receive isn't at all what we were looking for. Obviously, when we ask for something, we expect to receive what we are asking for. That's the reason we make the request, isn't it? So when we address our prayer. We want him to answer our prayer. We want him to removed the trouble that afflicts us. That's the answer we are looking for. Isn't that what it means to pray confidently, trusting in God's almighty power and in the assurance of His loving concern for our well-being? It certainly is. But remember, God answer our prayer according to His divine wisdom and not necessarily according to our wishes, no matter how frequently and fervently we plead with him to grant the answer we are looking for.

We can never say, then, that God isnt listening or that he doesn't care. His plans for us may just be different from what we think they should be. It is not for us to prescribe the time when he should help nor the manner in which he does. Sometimes we may be so determined that our way is the only way that we don't recognize God's answer when he give it!

We certainly can learn from Paul's example. God did not give the answer Paul's prayer according to his own purpose and plan. "My grace is sufficient for you," he told Paul. He was reminding Paul that we are he has chosen dependent on God's grace. By God's grace Paul was an apostle, and the effectiveness of his work as a chosen messenger of the gospel was not going to be diminished by his continuing to bear the thorn in his flesh. Paul preaching of the Word would succeed because it is God who gives it success, and not because Paul was physically strong and healthy. God's power is all the more evident when he accomplishes his purpose in the weakness of the human instrument he has chosen to carry out his work.

Never forget that we are the subject of God's grace, just Paul was. It is by grace that we are his children and have the privilege of addressing him as our dear Father and put to remembrance and placing our petitions before Him. He will answer according to His grace and purpose. But he said to me " My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2Corinthians 12:9).