#godanswersprayers

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:24 (NKJV)

“God gives answers in 3 ways; He says YES and gives you what you want. He says NO and gives you something better. He says WAIT and gives you the BEST.”

Daily Devotional: “Answered Prayers”

Friend, when you pray, God hears you! He listens and He never forgets a single word of your prayers. He then goes about answering your prayers. God, being God (and also having infinite wisdom), works to His own timetable. But God always answers your prayers:

Sometimes immediately,

Sometimes after a looooong wait and

Sometimes with silence.

We all want option 1: immediate answer to prayer! But God, for the best of reasons, may keep you waiting. This can be because you've asked at the wrong time. (You may not know it's the wrong time, but God does.) If so, the answer will come at the right time.

And God will often give you time to think about what you've asked for. Let's face it, how often do we change our minds about what we want?! Needs change, circumstances change, moods change (we're human, it happens). So God gives you a “Are you really sure you want that?” pause, to give you a chance to realise that you may have asked for something you might have been better not asking for. It might be a short or a long pause, but God will never make you wait a moment longer than is necessary.

Silence from God is either a “not now” or a “no.” You should respect Gods “no”, because He knows what you don't yet know about your future and He knows what you are better off not having! Sometimes the BEST answer to a prayer is NOTHING! (I wonder if God says, “Child, you'll thank me later.”) As the Garth Brooks song goes, “Some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers!”

If it's just the silence of a delayed answer, trust God and be patient, because He always has excellent reasons for the delay. God is love, so you can know that His love for you underlies every decision He makes. And in the silence, God is always doing something. He's always working on your behalf.