WHY DOES GOD HESITATE IN RESPONDING TO MY PRAYERS?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is
like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord
is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He
is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come
to repentance.
(2 Peter 3:8-9)

MEDITATION:
Have you ever wondered about God’s timing in all things (or maybe
something specific)? You may have thoughts like,
    “Lord, I have been praying and asking You, but I don’t
      see anything happening. What are You waiting on?”
You might start thinking that you need to make some specific changes
in your life, before He will respond to your request. You may even start
second guessing everything you do, including your attitudes and your faith.

These types of thoughts are not necessarily wrong, but may have nothing
to do with why the Lord is delaying His response to your request. He may
want you to make some changes in your life, but He could also be working
out some other things before He responds.

God sees the picture and knows the details of what is best for us and others.
He may already have the ‘wheels in motion’ with things we know nothing
about. He may be busy working out changes in the lives of others as a
precursor to responding to our requests.

This can raise a question that we should answer when we are waiting for
the Lord to respond to our prayer requests.
    Do I have enough faith and trust in Him to wait for His timing?
Waiting is difficult in a world where we are encouraged to act now. When
we delay, it can be perceived as a lack of confidence.

We can rest assured that confidence is not an issue for our Heavenly Father.
The truth is, we may find out later why the Lord delayed in responding to
our request, or we may never know why. What we do know, however, is that
when we pray, our Heavenly Father hears our prayers, and He loves us all.

Fortunately, we are given God’s Word to help us better understand why God
delays in responding to our requests.
    He is ‘patient and does not want anyone to perish’.
    He wants ‘every person to be saved’.

His delay in answering our requests may be a part of His plan for the salvation
of someone else. Jesus delayed in responding to the death of His friend Lazarus;
but look what happened when He responded, after His delay.
    Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit
    Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.
    (John 11:45)

We can see that when the Lord delays, it can, and does have an impact on
the salvation of others. If Jesus delayed for that reason with His good friend
Lazarus, then we can certainly expect God to delay sometimes in responding
to our request, can’t we?

ACTION:
Questions to consider:
    – Am I in a ‘waiting period’ with the Lord?
    – How am I handling His delays?
    – Have I continued to have faith and trust in God, and His timing?
    – As difficult as it might be, have I thanked Him
       for hearing my prayer and for His delays?

Rather than being impatient with the Lord, we should consider His
primary purpose for delaying His response. When we focus on His
reasons for delaying, we will find it’s much easier to thank Him for
His delay.

Look at the advice from Paul.
    Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all
    circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
    (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Paul said that we should ‘give thanks in all circumstances’, which means
we should thank Him for His delays. We may not know the exact reason
for His delays, but we know that everything the Lord does is good and is
worthy of our thankfulness.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I don’t understand all Your ways, but I know that
Your plans are good. Forgive me for my impatience, and help me to
realize that answers to my prayers may be delayed so You can have an
effect on the eternal destination of others. I thank You for any delays
You may have had with others that resulted in my salvation. Teach me
to be thankful for delays in my requests, so that others may be saved.
Develop in me a greater faith and trust in You and Your timing.”

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