“The deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done. Acceptance of whatever this means is the great victory of faith that overcomes the world.” – Elisabeth Elliot, missionary, author, and speaker
Sometimes, it surprises me how much I want my will to prevail. How much stock I put into my own plans, which are made carefully, but imperfectly. And how little I accept God’s will over my own.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting things and praying for them. God wants our prayers, wants a relationship, and wants to communicate with us.
But a lot of the time, our prayers include a timer. We want to feel better—now. We want a spouse or baby—this year. Or we want to be out of debt—before Christmas.
Our desire to have things the way we want them, when we want them, can lead to feelings of disappointment, sadness, and frustration. We think that because our prayers weren’t answered on our timetable that God didn’t hear. Didn’t care. Isn’t there.
But God is always there. Always listening. Always answering. But His answers may be a little different than we expect.
Yes. No. Not Yet.
Maybe you’ve heard that God answers prayers in three ways: Yes, No, and Not yet.
It’s the Not Yet that gets us.
But while waiting can be hard, it’s the perfect place for our faith to grow. It’s in this space that we put aside what we want and trust in His will.
God’s perfect plan came about long before our inferior versions. His timing is always going to be better than ours, even when it doesn’t seem that way at the time.
And that’s where the “Thy will be done” part of our prayer comes into play. You need to trust in His will and lean on your faith to wait with patience.
Consider what you know about the character of God. Is He the type of God to ignore His people? Is He likely to give you half a blessing, rather than the whole enchilada?
Is His will to leave us wondering or to show us in no uncertain terms that He is our God?
If you’ve been praying for things and waiting longer than you expected, remember that your timetable and God’s are not the same. And take to heart that His will and His plans are bigger and bolder than anything you might have asked for.
Take this time of waiting as an opportunity to trust God’s provision and His character, and accept His will.
Have you been waiting on an answer to an important prayer? Or has God answered in an unexpected way? How have you accepted His will in your life? I’d love to hear in the comments!
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