GUEST POST by: Marianne
We pray for legitimate help. We wait, and there is nothing……..
Why?
Those who insist that every prayer is met with victory, if you pray hard enough, or tithe long enough, are wrong.
Jesus prayed to avoid the cross, but he died on it anyhow. The apostles were faithful in prayer, yet most were also crucified, as Jesus was, or put to death for their faith.
People get depressed when God does not seem to answer, or His answer is obviously “no.”
Sometimes God helps, sometimes He doesn’t. Why?
I have found that the longer I know the Lord, the less He helps me.
That does seem opposite of what I would expect.
But as I mature in faith, my faith is tested more. And I have to wait longer for anything, if I am to get it at all. God is present to help me grow in faith. If he answers too quickly, then my faith stays where it is at.
Many of us have legitimate situations. We are in serious difficulty: unemployed for years, out of money, terminal illness, etc.
We have to accept the reality of our situation.
If it is meant to be cured, then it will. If it goes on too long, we will die because of the situation.
Sometimes, we do not get another job in time, before we lose our house, and sometimes we do not survive cancer.
But this is the time to draw closer to God anyhow, because he may be all we have left. We need to also accept that it is not God rejecting our prayers for help.
God gives life and he takes it away. Our life is in His hands.
Maybe it is our time to go and be with Him.
Our heavenly reward will not be based on our success in life, or how well we got God to answer our prayers, or quickly overcoming an earthly problem.
It will be based on our faithfulness during a testing time, when God does not give us what we want.
It is the dark times when we are nothing, our life is nothing, and we have nothing, that we earn our crowns.
So when you see this happening to you, just look up to Him. He is watching you grow, and he knows the pain you are in.
He has allowed it, so that you will not only come to know Him and His sufferings, but also a greater weight of glory when you meet Him.
Do not give up. Be encouraged. God is not rejecting you.
You are closer to Him now, than you ever have been before. No matter how hard it is, just rest in Him.
Marianne, Thank you for your post. I reposted it to a corroborative blog I am hosting and working on as an experiment with b2evolution software. It can be seen at: http://godspot.isrv.org/godspot/blogs/blog5.php I’ll drop you an email later and tell you about it.
But back to your post. Most morning as I wake up, God gives me a line of thought to work with for the next post. This morning it was “Where is God in the midst of battle?” How appropriate that I would also wake up to your post. God is like that.
Have you ever noticed one local preacher sharing the same message as another distant preacher on the same Sunday. I think God has a “broadcast all” link between His Spirit and those that listen.
Anyway, thank you for listening (to the Spirit)!
Funny how that works, I was responding to your post about the ruined financiers.
Hi Marianne and Archie;
Be careful for what you wish for it will come true actually works.
It has happened in my life, however you actually have to dig deep within yourself for the truth, it is not always apparent.
There may be times that you pray for one thing but deep in your mind there is another request.
That is one theory of mine, the other being that God may be using a hands off approach and let the laws that were instituted do the work.
I will leave it at that, because I really don’t know
Hi Ichabod,
What you say is true. We all have to examine our true intentions. When we reach for something, we then have to learn to take what comes. It was our decision to do the reaching.
blessings
marianne