Refining Process

Matthew 7:^9&11 “If a child asks his father for bread will he be given a stone instead? …Of course not!  If you… know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask Him for them?” (LB, emphasis added).

What are you asking God for? I want you to take this scripture and meditate on it until it becomes flesh in you. Then personalize it and you will see how it completely changes your prayer life. When we ask and we wait, it is not because God has bad intentions, or that He is ignoring us. No! The truth is that waiting and consistent prayer clarifies our requests. In fact, the delay sometimes is a test of clarification. In other words, sometimes God delays the answer to test us. Zechariah 13:⁹ “…I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them…” (GNT). Often, a delay separates a deep longing from a mere wish. Very often, the delays we experience purify our requests from mere wishes to deep longings.

When I was much younger and praying for a car, my request was for a ‘Lamborghini Countach’. It stands out now because I remember how I used to pronounce the name of the car. But the more I grew, the more I understood that a car is just a car, and the more I clarified my request. It is good to have a nice car, but honestly, at the end of the day, it is just a car. So, if God decides to bless you with a Lamborghini, it does not make your head spin because you know that it is just a car. What if God answers every prayer that everybody prays? Think about it, many of us will be dead because there are people who are praying for us to fall down and die, or that it will be ill with us. And guess what? These people are Christians, not witches and wizards.

What if God answers everybody’s prayers? Imagine God answering everyone’s prayers on the weather. You want it to rain today because you are with your spouse and want to snuggle up. Another person does not want it to rain because he just hung clothes out to dry. So, you say, ‘Lord let it rain’ and it starts raining. The other person says, ‘Lord, I do not want it to rain’, the rain stops. Then the farmer says, ‘I want sunshine and rain’ and he gets it. Then a child says, ‘Father, please make it snow’, and it starts snowing. Then another person says, “Lord, how can it be snowing at this time of the year? Please make it stop.’ It will be chaos!

Are you not grateful that God does not answer every prayer? Note, it is not that God does not want to answer your prayer. It is that He wants you to be sure that you really want what you are asking for and that is big. Several times during a delay, I discover that I want something different, or that I want to modify my request. And I am grateful that God did not answer immediately.

Prayer:  Father, help me not to ask amiss. Help me refine my prayers to align with Your heart and desire for me, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen!