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Pastor Luis' Corner
God Answers Our Prayers In Multiple Ways
"I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 34:4
A few days ago we had the privilege of hosting our 5th Pastors Congress. During the Congress I was honored to lead the daily devotion. I used a book, The Battle Plan for Prayer, which all participants took home. This book taught us new things about prayer.
Does God answer prayer? Of course He does. With this book, we found 5 ways that God uses to answer our prayers.
1. An immediate yes. A lot of times when we pray and our prayer is aligned with the will of God we get an immediate yes. He will, sometimes, answer before we even ask! "Before they call I will answer" Isaiah 65:24.
2. Yes, but in His timing. When He takes His time to answer it doesn't necessarily mean He is denying our request. The Priest, Zachariah, and his wife prayed for a baby boy, a son. God answered their prayer more than 30 years after they asked. "Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son" Luke 1:13.
3. Yes, only to please even if it's not His will. We remember when the people asked Samuel for a King though it wasn't God's will. However, because they insisted He said yes, but they had to suffer the consequences. "When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that day" 1 Samuel 8:18. (I encourage you to read this whole chapter).
4. No, because our request doesn't align with His will. "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD" Proverbs 1:28-29.
5. No, even when our request is in His will, He will sometimes say no because He has something better planned for us. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." John 11:21.
If you don't have a time set aside for prayer, I encourage you to start one. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."
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