Joy is Our Strength
Wanting Immediate Responses
Scripture Reading: Galatians 3:9
Key Verse: Nehemiah 8:10
“… for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”
I want to wrap up our discussion of praying in Jesus’s Name.
In yesterday’s devotional I gave you three words that summarize how God answers prayers from Christ-followers: Go, No, and Slow.
“Go” is the answer that we always are hoping for because it represents God’s “yes” to our desires.
“No” is the answer that calls on our trust and faith to believe that, though my desired answer seems right to me, it might not be good in the long run. The God who knows my future is the God that deserves my trust when His answer is “no” to my requests.
“Slow” is the about timing of our answer. Slow is a “yes”, but a “not yet” from God. This answer, like God’s “no” answer, calls on us to trust Him and His knowledge of all things.
In today’s devotional I want to remind you of one more thing about how God answers our prayers. When we pray, we seldom know how God will answer our requests. Even a “yes” from God may not take place at once. Certainly a “no” or “slow” answer from God leaves us in the dark for a while.
It is my opinion that the reason Christ-followers struggle to be faithful in their prayer life is not knowing or seeing immediate results from their prayers. Most days, we finish our prayer time and go about the rest of our day not knowing exactly how God is going to answer our prayers. This can be a discouraging thing to us and may tend to take away our passion for prayer.
How do we keep our passion for prayer? We must keep reminding ourselves that God does hear us and gives us His answer. Let’s not let the lack of knowing His answer to our prayers discourage us.
The Bible tells us that we must live by faith (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11). Let’s make every day a day of faith. Before you close your prayer time, remember to say: “Father, thank you for the answer you just gave me to my request”.
Our Good, Good Father does, indeed, respond to your every request!
Father, I am so grateful for our relationship and your desires to give me an abundant life! In Jesus’s Name, amen.