Audio transcription
What do you really do when God doesn’t answer your prayer in your accepted time? What do you really do? Will you still love him? Will you still serve Him faithfully, just as you are serving Him? Will you pray and fast the way you did when you are asking for whatever you are seeking?
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Or will you become mad and bitter against God because, in your own understanding, you think He didn’t answer you? What do you do when you expect God to do ABCD and the contrary happens?
It’s a matter of faith. Personally, I was trusting God for something. My website needed renewal, but I didn’t have the fee to renew it. So, it ended up being shut down. Yeah, it’s hard to say, but I thank God for that.
I really prayed about it and I asked God and I had faith He will do it. But He didn’t. So, does it mean that God hates me or he didn’t answer my prayer at an acceptable time? Of course, no.
I believe there’s one reason why God doesn’t answer our prayers at our acceptable time. Of course, you may say maybe there’s a sin in your heart, or you don’t have enough faith. Of course, those are very good reasons.
But most often I think the Lord does it intentionally. You may be like what? Intentionally? Of course, God does it intentionally to test our faith. In the book of Matthew, the Bible declares that fast seek ye the kingdom of heaven and all our things shall be added unto you.
And thinking about that verse, I believe one of the major reasons why the Lord does it intentionally, that is, fail to answer prayers at our own acceptable time, is to test our faith to see whether we really love Him or we are just interested in ourselves.
Do we love Him for who He is? Do we serve the Lord for who He is because He’s God all by Himself? Or do we serve Him because of the benefits package? That is, He will help you to pay your bills? Will help you to find something to eat.
No. I believe if we have to love the Lord, it should be from the heart, whether He does it or He doesn’t do it. I’m going to use some scriptures to lay a very solid foundation on the same subject. And therefore, I believe the Lord tests our hearts.
What to do when God does not answer our prayers
He tests our hearts. The Bible declares in 1 Corinthians 8:3 that the Lord knows them that love Him. And therefore, the Lord tests our hearts to see if we are true, if we are really genuinely loving Him, or if we are after the package.
And just ask yourself, do you really love the Lord or are you after the package? Are you interested in what God can offer you? Most often we don’t seek God’s face, we seek His hands.
We just want his hands, what he can offer but we don’t seek His righteousness, his face. And may God forgive us for the many times we have sought his hands and not his face, not his righteousness. A good story is told about Meshack, Sheldrake, and Abednego.
Allow me to read for you the Scriptures. So, it is in the Book of Daniel 3:16. And the Bible declares “Sheldrake, Meshack, and Abednego replied to the king, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it. And He will rescue us from your hand or king. But even if He does not, (this is what is outstanding about His Scripture) we want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your god or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
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That is what I call faith. We know very well that Nebuchadnezzar had made a golden statue. He forced the people to worship it. But these three gentlemen, the men of God, they purpose in their heart not to bow down to the image. And were threatened to be thrown into the fire.
But they were willing to die. Why? Because they had a whole heart for their God. They told the king that our God will deliver us. They had that assurance in their heart. But also, they said to the king if our God doesn’t deliver us, even though we have the faith He will deliver us, we will not bow down to the image.
Can you really do that? Just question yourself. If the Lord doesn’t answer your prayer, will you still trust in him? Or will you backslide?
Will you seek help from other sources or bow down to other gods? Money is a god in itself.
The example of Abraham
Like these three gentlemen will you still remain faithful? Just ask yourself. Another story is told of Abraham, that God called Abraham when he was 75 years, and Abraham waited for 25 good years until the promise was fulfilled.
The Bible declares that after Abraham had patiently waited, the Lord fulfilled His promise. There was a period of testing before Abraham qualified for that which the Lord had promised him. The Lord tested his heart and the results were true, that Abraham had a whole heart after God.
Do you have a whole heart after God? Do I really have a whole heart after God? Or I’m the kind of person who just prays and seeks the Lord because of what he can offer in his hands.
How David responded to delayed prayers
We need to be true Christians, and may the Lord help us. It’s not easy, I confess. Trust me. See what David says about the same. If you read Psalms 69:13, the Bible declares “but as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord, at an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of thy steadfast love, answer me.”
Just listen to it. He says at an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of thy steadfast love, answer me.
Not at my time. Most often we want the Lord to answer us now and right now and now, and nothing more. And we don’t want to listen to him.
We just want to go by our will and nothing else. And that’s why we fail. May God have mercy on us. May he test our hearts. David declares in Psalms 139:23-24, he said “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
That is my prayer today. And it should also be your prayer that the Lord will search our hearts and see if there’s any wicked, any hidden thing in us. If we really serve Him for who He is or if we serve Him because of the benefits package.
