Category: Prayers

Trivial Prayer

Sometimes I’m reluctant to pray
As I feel the situation is so trivial it will work itself out
And I want to use praying energy for things that seem like they’re hard
But recently I found myself having to do a “trivial” prayer
The deadline to the airport was near and I just had to be there

There was only one road to the airport and a car covered every inch of it
The possibility of missing the plane grew real by every minute
Another plane wouldn’t come for another day
And I couldn’t stand an overnight stay
As I was so ready to leave that land the previous day

So as traffic inched along the way
I didn’t want to bother God, but I knew no other way
I began to pray, telling Him I didn’t want to stay
Thereafter, traffic didn’t move much faster
But it moved fast enough to barely catch the plane
Thank You Jesus, bless Your name.
Insight
Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14) for most of us that would be an easy no. But is anything so trivial or easy that we shouldn’t bring it to the Lord? Some of us may wrestle with this question. I know for me if I feel something is simple or it will work itself out; I may not pray about it. But big problems are the result of small problems going unattended. The Lord never said not to ask Him for small or trivial things. In Philippians 4:6 it says “be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”.

Decades Old Prayer

It was an intercession prayer, but it directly impacted me
Not only did I pray about it, but I told God how to answer it
In my mind there was only one way to fix the problem
And I prayed very, very, hard He would adhere to me

But days went by, which turned into months, then years
Over a decade later problem was still there
I got tired of praying for God to answer prayer my way

Did I give up on thinking a God would answer this prayer?
I didn’t give up, but I stopped praying constantly about it
All the while I was praying to God to provide one way, I saw Him provide in other ways
It reminded of the scripture “ I never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:5)

God caused prosperity in other areas to exceed the lack
He blessed exceedingly and unexpectedly
So much, that I really didn’t need Him to answer the decades old prayer
BUT HE DID

Just got news a few days ago
It will be about 20 years exactly
God has answered the prayer better than I expected
And He fixed it so, that the problem will never occur again
God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9).

Insight
In Isaiah 49:13-16 the Lord says He will never forget us. In times when our prayers go unanswered, we may think the God doesn’t hear us or He may not care to answer. But He hears and has compassion for us, and may provide in other ways until He answers our specific prayer.

Reflecting On “Unanswered” Prayers

I was reflecting on how hard I prayed for my spouse to get a job
Household expenses were increasing year after year
It would be great to have financial help
But a job never came despite of how hard I prayed
I got tired of praying about it
It’s not that I gave up on God
It’s that I was just worn out

As I started to accept the circumstances
The Lord allowed my income to increase
Such that my spouse’s job wasn’t even needed
It reminded me of the scripture
I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread (Psalm 37:25)
The Lord had already provided the income for which I prayed

You may pray long and hard
And don’t think that God will answer
And sometimes He doesn’t answer directly
Or the way we expect
But take a moment to reflect
If He has already answered your prayers and you don’t realize it yet?

 

Insight

This weeks praise expression focuses on unanswered prayers. After all, if God is so compassionate, why doesn’t He answer every prayer. There are several answers. It could be that what we are praying for is not in our best interest; as God can see into the future and we can’t. He doesn’t give it to us because what we are praying for can cause harm later on.

Or it could be that he has something better for us. The Bible states that God gives us good gifts (Matthew 7:11 )and all good and perfect comes from Him (James 1:17). He might deny us one thing to only bless us with something bigger and better later on.

And still yet, they are prayers that God never answers or does He? If we take time to reflect and what we’ve asked Him for we may discover that He has already answered our prayer but not the way we wanted Him to.