GOD’S TIMING FOR HIS GIFTS – Part 4 (... Continued from previous post) As you pray it may be helpful to keep a written record of your prayer requests or intentions, noting the date and a few circumstances surrounding the requests. When we look at that paper some weeks, months, years or even decades later we usually realize the Lord’s answers! Sometimes it’s only then that we realize that God in fact did answer our prayers! Answered prayers, including prayers that are answered by what we may describe as a “no” or a “wait,” always give rise to more prayers of thanksgiving, praise and worship of the Father. To the person who loves and relates to God at personal level, a “negative” or “delayed answer” is as good and as satisfying as an “instantly granted” prayer, for it is a response from Daddy, Abba, and Father! Jesus, for example, made a desperate prayer during the passion, and God apparently did not hear, let alone respond! Jesus prayed, “Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup (of suffering) away from me; nevertheless not as I will but as you will... why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 14:32-36, 15:33-37). Of course the Father heard the prayers. He always heard – and answered - all Jesus’ prayers. “Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you hear me always...’” (John 11:39-44)! So the suffering continued exactly as the Father willed it! Yet that is what Jesus also willed, for his will was that what the Father willed should go on to accomplishment! As the first part of His response the loving Father let the agony progress as scheduled according to the centuries old scriptures: the arrest, the trial, the false allegations, the abandonment by the disciples who fled or stayed away at safe distances, the scourging, the carrying of the heavy wood of the cross, the crucifixion, the death and, yes, even the burial! Jesus prayed, the all-loving Father heard the prayer; yet the suffering progressed on until the burial! If there was any last remaining hope of some action from the Father, it should come before the death, or, at the very latest, before the burial! However, with the successful burial the last of any hopes faded away! Of course Jesus had prayed, but that is it! He’s dead, He’s buried. (... To be continued). – ERIC E E OKIROR
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:33:31 +0000
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