How God Answers Our Prayers

Jon Bloom points out how we may be missing the answers to our prayers:

We can’t help but have unreal, romantic imaginations and expectations about what God’s answers to our prayers will be.

Therefore, we are often unprepared for the answers we receive from God. His answers frequently do not look at first like answers. They look like problems. They look like trouble. They look like loss, disappointment, affliction, conflict, sorrow, and increased selfishness. They cause deep soul-wrestling and expose sins and doubts and fears. They are not what we expect and we often do not see how they correspond to our prayers….

If we ask God for greater, deeper love for him, what should we expect to receive? Answers that give us a greater awareness of our deep and pervasive sinful depravity, because those who are forgiven much, love much, but those who are forgiven little, love little (Luke 7:47).

If we ask God to help us love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31), what should we expect to receive? Answers that force us to give unexpected attention to a neighbor (who we might not put in that category (Luke 10:29)), which are inconvenient and irritating….

If we ask God for a deeper experience of his grace, what should we expect to receive? Answers that oppose our pride and humble our hearts (James 4:6)….

If we ask God to help us “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10), what should we expect to receive? Answers that require more humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2) than we thought possible and might result in destitution, affliction, and mistreatment, like many saints throughout history, “of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:38).

Etc., etc. Read the rest here.

We often forget that God “predestined [us] to become conformed to the image of His Son”—that He is working in our lives to achieve this, and that we can expect pain will be involved. As Hebrews 12 reminds us, “[Y]ou have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons”:

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines”…. He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 

Comments

[Cory]

I asked God to make me a better man, heartache and broken relationships resulted, but also opportunities to heal those relationships through a thorough change in my way of perceiving those relationships. God is truly wonderful and kind.

[Mo]

The main answered prayer I need at this point in my life is for for a job opportunity so that I can obey God's COMMAND to work!

We are COMMANDED to work. And yet no matter how hard I try, no avenues are opening up. And for years now.

I'm at the end of my rope.

[RagTime]

Prayers to you Mo...

[Mo]

@ RagTime

Thanks.

[scblhrm]

Mo we pray for you but don't carry any unnecessary burden. We are commanded to work if able - in the context of volitional / persistent refusal to care for one's self / those dependent on you. In a hospital bed on a ventilator one cannot offend this requirement even though paid employment is offered to you. In the reverse direction, the able-bodied who are offered no work likewise cannot offend here. Man's mutable economics are no match for His immutable love :)

[scblhrm]

I see His Hand far better in retrospect than in the Now. God and Time are funny that way.......

[dave]

@ Mo;

Sometimes volunteering can lead to job opportunities. Also low wage dead end jobs can lead to better. The thing is, as a Christian, you're working for the Lord and as you try to glorify him in the way you do even menial work, the job becomes meaningful. He promises to provide all of our needs when we seek first his kingdom, in this case, by working at anything that doesn't violate our conscience.

These are not arm chair observations, but are actual experiences I'm sharing of his providence.

(This is a great post Amy, thanks.)

[JBerr]

Mo:

Maybe God's answer to your prayers is that you start your own business so that you can manage your own time and better serve. As a vocational missionary, I went on the mission field without enough financial support. God has paved a way for me to start my own business and be self-supporting, while still being able to take time to be a missionary. Having your own business can be more rewarding than a job and also can give you more opportunities to know a broader range of people for the purpose of evangelism. Just a thought.