“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:30-31 (ESV)
One of the hardest things for a Christian to do is wait on the Lord – whether waiting for an unanswered prayer, a school result, a job application, recovery from illness, or something else. It is very natural for us to give up or even get angry with God for not acting on what we want to happen or answering our prayers at the right time. Why does God not always answer our prayers when we think we need it? Does He not care for us and our needs? After all, we have given our lives to Him; should not God always provide what we need?
First, God does not treat us like we treat our spoiled pets – we want them always to be happy and satisfied. He is seeking more than just our convenience and comfort. He is transforming our character to be like Him. Part of that change in character is growing in faith and trusting in Him regardless of whether He answers our prayers or not, based on our timeframe. He wants us to grow in trusting Him and in patience and perseverance in faith in Him. God looks at us more than pets; He treats us like His sons and daughters, which involves discipline.
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:6-11 (ESV)
Second, God knows what is best for us more than we know. He made us, and we are His (Psalm 100:3). He formed and deeply cares for and loves us. He knows what we need, and He will decide if and when He will answer our prayers. The best thing we can do is to trust and rely on Him, even when our needs are not met by our deadline. If we believe that God truly loves us, we will surrender our wills to His will because He will never abandon or forsake us.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
Third, God is sovereign, and we cannot manipulate Him to do what we want and when we want it done. Imagine if God answered all our needs and prayers at our whim. Everyone would follow God then because God would be our servant, and we would be the master. This is a complete role reversal – we are supposed to serve and follow God because He is the King of all things and our Creator. We are supposed to submit our lives, including our wills, desires, and needs, to Him, and as our Master, it is His discretion if and when to respond to our needs.
Fourth, God is the God of our past, present and future. He sees our complete timeline, while we only see our here and now. His will for us is based on our good seeing our complete picture, not just the present. And part of that future is our eternal destiny – God will decide what is good for us to grow in our faith and character, with eternity in mind. We cannot know our future, and the best we can do is to trust the one who knows our future – our Lord God.
The bottom line is that waiting on the Lord is difficult. It tests our patience and endurance, but we become more like Jesus once we overcome our trials. Sometimes, God’s answer is no – and it assesses whether we continue to love and serve Him even when His will differs from ours. Whose will shall reign – God’s or ours? Accepting a no from God is hard to swallow, but it makes us trust God all the more. It makes us surrender our lives all the more, knowing He will take care of us in all circumstances and never abandon us. We submit our whole being to Him who bled and died for us.
In this life, we will encounter many times when God does not seem to answer our needs and prayers. Each time this happens, our faith and trust in Him grow if we continue to trust His wisdom. God is after our hearts of love and trust in Him, and that means He will use different circumstances in our lives so that we become mature sons and daughters who are after God’s will in everything and love Him faithfully regardless of any life circumstances.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:3-9 (ESV)
Top image credit: Collage of two individuals praying fervently, from Bigstock.com. Used with permission.
Tom Caballes is a National Coordinator of the Lamb of God, a community of the Sword of the Spirit with seven branches located throughout New Zealand. Tom and his wife Mhel and their two daughters [with his son-in-law and grand-daughter] live in Wellington, New Zealand.