As children we hated hearing ‘Not now’ or ‘Maybe later’ to a request for something we really wanted or for permission to be granted. The worst was to hear ‘I’ll think about it’ because we all figured out early on that an ‘I’ll think about it’ usually meant ‘No’. When my kids (and now grandkids) were young and would push for an answer I was not prepared to give or complaining about the “I’ll think about it’ answer, I gave them a choice. I would tell them if they insisted on an immediate answer it would be ‘No’ but if they waited I would give their request serious consideration. They always would choose to wait.
As adults taking request, petitions and needs to our Holy Father, we are often no more easily satisfied that those impatient kids. We want an answer and we want it now. After all, we are busy adults with jobs and families to take care of; we need direction or finances or a health issue addressed. We are just too self-important and busy to wait….so thinketh a prideful and spiritually immature man or woman.
Through prayer, the Lord will give us a solution to the problem. The question is, will we see and accept it as THE answer if it is not what we wanted to hear? Hmmm…
His answer could be just what we asked (a Yes) or something entirely different (a No); He might tell us to wait in our current situation instead of taking action, (a Not Now).
God’s direction and guidance will be according to His perfect will in His timing. His answer may require us to take a step of faith. God uses every opportunity to strengthen our trust and grow us in righteousness. Our prayer life must grow from one of childish impatience demanding immediate gratification to one of faith-filled expectation confident that whatever the answer, God is following His will and has our best interest at heart.
1 Corinthians 13:11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.
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