When we pray and are made to wait, God is also testing our faith. The testing is what produces patience within us trusting God will work all things out for our good in His perfect time! Once patience has its perfect work we will truly be lacking nothing. Let's take a look at the life of Joseph. The spoiled favorite son of twelve children, Joseph was given a dream by God one night. He happily told his brothers, all of whom were older than him, that they would be bowing down to him. Needless to say, the brothers did not like this dream. He had a similar dream another time and not learning anything from the previous incident, he shared it again with his brothers. They were less pleased the second time.
"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." Genesis 37: 19-20
Instead of killing him, the brothers sold Joseph into slavery (think about that the next time you think your family is dysfunctional). God however, prospered Joseph in the house of Potiphar, only to see Potiphar's wife try to seduce him. Joseph did the right thing and yet was falsely accused of assault and thrown in prison. He sat in prison for ten long years. We have to believe that Joseph was actively praying for his freedom! How many of us would have emerged from that prison bitter toward God for the waiting? The seeming unfairness of it all? God could have freed Joseph whenever He wanted. But God was more concerned about the perfect timing, not Joseph's timing. Joseph had to grow closer to God during his prison experience.
We too can find ourselves in a prison experience. Maybe
waiting for so long we start to think God has forgotten us. Maybe we start to
have divided loyalty. We start to seek out the answers of the world instead of
remaining committed to wait on God in prayer. The woman with the issue of blood
waited 12 years for her prayers to be answered. Moses waited many decades to
lead the people of God out of
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:14
We can find ourselves too easily impatient with God. Moses was not ready to lead the Israelites. David was not ready to be king. Joseph was not ready to ascend to be Pharaoh's right hand man. Remember, God is the one with the plan, not us. We think we have plans and then try to get God to bless them. God is waiting for us to acknowledge Him and His sovereignty before He will reveal His plan.
The last fundamental aspect of prayer, and the most overlooked, is expectancy. Sometimes we may have problems with the requests; perhaps there is not enough humility. Sometimes we may have a problem with the waiting; perhaps there is not enough patience. But sometimes we can be ok in those areas and still come to the Lord not truly expecting the answer to our prayers. Or, our expectancy can be muted. We can allow the lies of the enemy to water down what we expect from God. There is no power in a prayer that does not expect great things from God beloved. Ephesians teaches us:
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, - Ephesians 3: 20
