Thursday, 06 August 2009
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Why Does God Take so Dang Long? Part One
So you've prayed you're prayers, believed in His willingness to answer you, trusted the promises in Scripture, claimed them in faith for your life... and nothing's happening. What? That's right... nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. He's on vacation. It's nap time in Heaven. Silence. What the heck is happening? Don't You know how much I suffer?! What are you waiting for?!! Give me the promise, with extra cheese and hold the pickles!!!
More silence, more frustration, and some very unhappy complaints.
This might be because you are not familiar with God's two rules for answered prayer. Here they are:
1. "I am the Lord. We're going to do it My way."
2. "If you have questions or complaints, see rule #1."
It seems simplistic, but it is profound in its application. Yes, God is considerate of your needs, has heard your prayers, and is aware of your suffering. However, there is a Lordship issue involved in getting Him to do something about it. The first rule speaks to accepting that while God can be trusted to answer your prayers, He is going to do so with the answer that He thinks is best for your solution, and in the time that He thinks is right. Can you get a different answer than the one He has fashioned? Nope. He does not change His mind. Can you hurry Him along? Nope. He has his own clock, and He's not interested in how your watch reads things. This is how it is. He's very stubborn about these two points. They are, shall we say, 'deal breakers.'
A good example of this is Abraham. He wanted a son. His wife Sarah however, was barren. God therefore promised him a son. So they waited. And they waited. A year went by. A decade. Another decade. Where was God? Finally, Sarah, feeling very much like God had forgotten, neglected, or broken His promise, decided to give her hand-maid Hagar to Abraham, so that they could have a son through her. Big mistake. Immediately Hagar was lifted up in pride against her mistress Sarah, and boasted both of having had her husband Abraham, and of being more of a woman because she conceived. Sarah was miserable for being made a fool of daily, and Abraham was miserable because he had a house with two contending women. I say again, big mistake. Nightmare.
The problem is that they didn't follow God's two rules. Number one, doing it His way. God was in the mood to demonstrate His power. In this case, He wanted to wait until Sarah was past the child-bearing years, so that He could show His miraculous power. Sarah and Abraham decided to do it their way; enter Hagar. This is where God moved to rule number two: Seeing rule number one. When you ignore rule number one, God is forced to take the matter to rule number two, and show you why you should have followed rule number one. In this case, God either allowed or caused a spirit of pride to be lifted up in Hagar that made both Sarah and Abraham deeply regret what they'd done, despite the joy of having a son through her in Ishmael. That certainly brought some measure of joy to Abraham's life (if not Sarah's) but the cost of dealing with Hagar was so unbearable that Sarah finally drove Hagar and her son away with ill treatment. Yet God's grace is extravagant. He met Hagar in the wilderness, where she was in a more humbled mood after being chased out, and He corrected her of her pride, telling her to return to her mistress and be submissive. Hagar returned then, a properly corrected hand-maid and things were smoothed over a time.
Until Issac came along that is. Now there was a new conflict: sibling rivalry. The first-born son vs. the miracle son. The conflict rears up, it contends a time, everybody is miserable, and again, Sarah gets Hagar thrown out with her son Ishmael, to the sorrow of Abraham, who obviously loved both his sons as any good father would.
The moral of the story? Follow rule number one and do it God's way, or He will be forced to take you to rule number two, and demonstrate to you just how bad your idea and your timing really is. I know you think you know what you need when you need it, and you certainly know what you want when you want it, but there is no escaping the reality that God knows what is best for you and when it is best for you to have it, as well as for those around you.
Don't make Him come down here and prove it. It's a bad deal for everyone involved.
Do you have trouble waiting for God to answer your prayers?
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About the Author
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- From: JosephParsons@xanga
- Name: JosephParsons
- About Me: In passionate pursuit of a writing career. Very married, father of one. Full of faith and believing after greater things. I would rather be drinking a brown ale on a black beach in Tahiti.
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Comments (32)
patienceeeeeeeeeeee
Rather than worrying about why God isn't giving us what we want, we should focus on conforming our desires to His. When our desires are reflective of His desires, we find more often that He does give us what we want, because what we want is what He wants. I know that isn't a popular idea, and in our fallen flesh it is easier said than done.
But really, the key is to understand that things will always be done God's way....even if He "answers" our prayers, He isn't doing it our way, He is still doing it His way.
Do you have.... scriptural verse to back up for rule 1?
@RoastedMarshmallow@xanga - I agree with you... I would like to see a scripture or religious document that purports rule #1.
God answers prayers, that much I know, but sometimes the answer feels impossible to find. Like how is anyone (*cough* like me *cough*) supposed to know whether or not they are meant to get married? Something like that may not seem evident until you wake up one morning at the age of 65 and realize that it never happened.
@RoastedMarshmallow@xanga -Do you have.... scriptural verse to back up for rule 1?
Try the Lord's Pray: "They Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Try the agony in the Garden of Gethsemene when Jesus said, "Not my will but thy will be done." Try Exodus, Genesis and almost very other book in the Bible.
Adam and Eve were thrown out of Paradise for violating the will of God. Every 1st born in Egypt was killed by God because Pharoah did not follow the will of God.
@karadarling@xanga - @RoastedMarshmallow@xanga -
I don't know if the author of the post had anything in mind, but I was thinking of a few -
Psalm 115 speaks of those who mock us because it seems as though our
God is silent or isn't making His presence known. The initial defense
is (v3)"Our God is in the Heavens, He does whatever He pleases".
Job 42:2 "I know that you can do all things, and no purposes of yours can be thwarted".
This follows lengthy lamenting and debate over why God would allow Job
to be in such a predicament, and God giving a lengthy description of
His superior power and knowledge.
Isaiah 46:10-11 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure';
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,the man of My purpose from a far country
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.
James 4:3 & 13-15 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.....
.....13Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."
14Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.15Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
And then there's Luke 21:42, where even Jesus prayed "... "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."
None of these passages directly proclaim rule #1, but I think we can gather that it is awfully important to recognize God as the final authoritative power in all things, including our lives, and this
should effect how we communicate with God. When we don't recognize this, things don't turn out well, or at least we won't think things are turning out well because of our own warped perspective of God and our selfish expectation of His actions...and our own actions cluttering up the picture.
God answers my prayers all the time and I don't have to wait very long, either.
Jesus said we have to be like children to enter the kingdom of heaven. It appears that the further one gets into adulthood the longer it takes for God to answer prayers.
"Pray for anything you want. Pray for anything, but what about the Divine Plan? Remember that? The Divine Plan. Long time ago, God made a Divine Plan. Gave it a lot of thought, decided it was a good plan, put it into practice. And for billions and billions of years, the Divine Plan has been doing just fine. Now, you come along, and pray for something. Well suppose the thing you want isn't in God's Divine Plan? What do you want Him to do? Change His plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a Divine Plan. What's the use of being God if every run-down shmuck with a two-dollar prayerbook can come along and fuck up Your Plan?
And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well, it's God's will." "Thy Will Be Done." Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing."
@fallingraindrop@xanga - I can think of a good explanation for that.
Children trust adults as having had more exposure to the world, so they often believe much of what adutls tell them. They believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, for instance. But as children grow older, they learn how to better process information to arrive at accurate conclusions. As a result, they realize that those stories about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are illogical, or at least have no empirical proof. In my opinion, a person would have to be like a child to do well by religion because children often believe what they are told without requiring any proof, unlike most adults.
As they grow older, children also notice that their prayers might not be answered by a god but by natural, predictable events. Ie. Pray for rain and if the weather conditions are right, it rains. Caused by the weather conditions, not necessarily a god. And I find that the more adults learn, the easier it is to understand events that were once considered too complex to be caused by anything other than a supernatural being.
@Ex_Adyto_Cordis@xanga - And I find that the more adults learn, the easier it is to understand events that were once considered too complex to be caused by anything other than a supernatural being.
What then, is the purpose of this post?
@Ex_Adyto_Cordis@xanga - Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing."
That is exactly right! Too many Christians put the doctrine ring through their noses and expect God to grab the ring and lead them around.
In reality human beings are free. We are free to make our own lives, to create a destiny for ourselves. This is because our life is a gift from God. We are to pray so that God helps us enjoy his gift to the fullest.
We also pray for the sick, pray for peace, pray for the end of abortion, for the oppressed, etc.
Yes, I think we all do. But like the Word says, His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Therefore, His timing is not our timing. In fact, in Him, there is no time. We just need to learn to trust Him.
@fallingraindrop@xanga - The purpose of this post is to get advice about why a supernatural being that a religious community believes in doesn't perform up to an individual's expectations, I'm assuming. I'm not sure what the point was of your second post, if you could clarify?
@Ex_Adyto_Cordis@xanga - The purpose of this post is to get advice about why a supernatural being that a religious community believes in doesn't perform up to an individual's expectations, I'm assuming.
You are so delightfully witty!!
@fallingraindrop@xanga - Haha well I wasn't really sure how to respond to the question, so that's the best I could express.
@noree_n@xanga - Indeed.
@RoastedMarshmallow@xanga - It is an extrapolation of my observance from reading the stories in the Scriptures, one of which I've already given from events in Abraham's life. There are others. You are free to disagree if you like.
@sarahzthoughts@xanga - Marriage is very much within God's general will for humanity; it is an institution of His own making. If you have some reason not to get married, you are not obligated (perhaps you want to be a missionary in Nirobie for example, and do not want to be hindered with family responsibilities. That would be a perfectly reasonable cause not to get married).
@LoBornlite@xanga - I always enjoy your warrior's spirit.
God knows what's best for you and for everyone...so he may not answer you the way you want but it will be for good. like it says in Romans 8:28
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
so be patient...and he knows just a little bit more then you...and he does look out for us...and if things are going rough he is preparing us for the future and maybe we need it. but the main thing to know is that he does care for you and he's not just sitting up there and everything just happen. hope this helps and i wasn't rude or anything.
@JosephParsons@xanga - But, isn't it possible that God has called some people to be single? People who are not missonaries, priests, or nuns.
God is will ALWAYS Have the first and final word in every decsion that has to be made. God is the boss, and He is not your friend, and He is not your genie, He is your master. You don't make deals with God, you OBEY. Complete and end of story.
We won't always get what we pray for right away for a reason. Why does everyone seem forget the most infamous two words ( Housing Market) or (Merrill Lynch). Yeah those memories come back really quick don't they.
Remember God no matter what, IS ALWAYS ON TIME. Man has tried to meet him there but has failed several times by tripping over his own two feet.
One of the most important aspects of faith is patience.
question is.. why do we TAKE SO DANG LONG?!!!! lol
get it righhhhhhhht
@sarahzthoughts@xanga - Maybe the word 'called' isn't the one I would use. I believe on the topic of marraige, Paul says that some have the 'gift' of celebacy, but he also says that 'it is better to marry than to burn.' I would suggest that if you do not find yourself content with being single, and your thoughts are toward romantic interest, then you probably don't have that gift.