Post by Darlene Aiken
Part 1
How many times have you asked God for something and felt as if He not only did not give you what you wanted, but He didn't even acknowledge the fact that you asked? You just were 100% sure that you were requesting a good thing. In fact, you were so certain that you continuously meditated on specific verses such as John 14:14 (NIV) – “You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it.” At some point you began to ask what happened because you're mature enough to know that God will not bless mess. You're mature enough to know that your request has to be in line with who He is and what He stands for. Still nothing!
We can get so caught up in our so-called level of maturity and the length of our walk that we forget that what we are asking for may be good, but our timing is off. We are taught that we serve a perfect God. So, if we truly believe that we serve a perfect God then we must believe that His perfection is not specific to certain things, certain times, or certain requests. However, He is perfect at ALL times for ALL things.
You might be thinking, Yeah but His Word encourages us to pray fervently - James 5:16 (KJV) – “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” What about when His Word encourages us to continue to ask, seek, and knock - Matthew 7:7 - (NLT) – “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” You might also add that His Word also says that we should “pray without ceasing” (ESV) - 1 Thessalonians 5:13.
Why would The Lord say all of this in so many ways if He did not want us to keep asking for what we want; yet He still will not respond? In addition to not responding He's not giving any hint on whether I'm on the right track or not. Then I begin believing that maybe I'm on the wrong track. I begin to really become convinced that I'm on the wrong track because my situation seems to get worse. My kids begin acting up. My husband is doing new and unfavorable things. My wife, well she's acting brand new and mysterious. My boss is hinting toward layoffs, which might possibly include me, and this is NOT the right time as I do not have any money in the bank and my best friend is not returning my phone calls. If that's not enough, the IRS just wrote me to say that I owe them a bunch of money. Lord!!! Where are you?
So what do you do next? Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog posting.
