Look, whatever we can imagine or ever ask God can do so much better than that we cannot even measure it! And according to what? To the power that is at work within us! The power that approaches God with humility and trusts God during the waiting. The power that approaches God expecting Him to be God! The Gospel of Luke tells the story of the faith of the Centurion. A non-believer, the Centurion had a sick servant who was close to death. Jesus was on His way to the Centurion's home when we saw the expectant approach to God displayed:
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Luke 7: 6-8
Jesus declared He had not found such great faith in all of Israel! There were no divided loyalty problems with this Centurion. He did not only approach God with his prayer but he did so expectantly. He knew the power God possessed and simply laid the request at His feet asserting the power He had.
That is how we need to approach our prayer life too. Knowing what God can do is not enough beloved we actually have to expect that He will do it. As long as we are asking within His will we know that He is working all things out for our good. Yet too often we can look at an answer of "wait" as if it were a "no" or an answer of "no" as if it were punishment. We must change how we think when we approach our prayer life. The answer of wait really means there is a better timing. A Godly timing. It means there are still things not in place before God can bring it to pass in our lives.
And an answer of no is still God protecting us, not punishing us. We might be praying for a job but God sees where that job will take us. He sees how it will affect our family, our church, our ministry, and our future. We only see the present and we want all of our answers to be yes in the present but God sees all time. He is the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end. He sees where that relationship might go. He sees what would happen to all answered prayers. We have been programmed to think God loves us if the answer is yes but the truth is God loves us when the answer is "no" too. In some cases, it means He loves us even more!
He is a mighty God. He is bigger than whatever valley you find yourself in. In all things He is working for your good. Whether the answers is yes, no or wait, the answer is because He loves us. Approach Him with reverent expectancy knowing that we serve a mighty and all-powerful God.
Reverend Anthony Wade September 27, 2010
