Many folks always say they wish they had more faith. What they don’t realize is that it doesn’t require as much faith to have prayers answered as they might think. One thing I’ve found to be true is that if we pray for something that’s in harmony with God’s will and have just a little faith of obtaining a response, it happens. Sometimes it seems almost effortless.
Things become more complicated when we pray for things that are more self-based than God-based. Although we can expect blessings on all levels, not all prayer requests are based in what’s in accord with the way God would do things.
We can pray for companionship, but might not receive it until we’ve learned that the Lord loves us and we should love ourselves first. We can pray for a million dollars, but might not get it until we’ve matured enough to budget money better. We can pray that someone changes and becomes a different person when we probably should be praying that they gain wisdom and understanding so those changes might occur. We can pray for forgiveness and wonder why we don’t feel any different when we should be forgiving others first.
Once we’ve learned to better understand how God does things, our prayers become more aligned with his desires and when that happens, BAM, those prayers are answered surprisingly fast.
One thing to remember when praying for ourselves or for others…
“Not my will Father, but your will be done.”
~ Gil
I really appreciated the message of this post. It's not often that you read something so simple and so deep. I can remember times in my walk where I'd pray for things that I wasn't yet mature enough to receive (ie: wanting relationships, financial blessings..etc). And everytime I'd consciously give up my desires and instead, invest it in the Lord's will over my own, my prayers would be answered in divine fashion…without fail. And everytime, the circumstances would be better than had I planned it myself 🙂 What's I find so great about these simple truths is that they don't have to be proven. They just have to be lived…and the proof will follow.
Thanks for the post GIL!
What a great post and a great reminder about the way prayer works. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for this post… It is something I really needed today. =)
Amen! I agree!