Written by: John Sernaque
Dear Reader,
Books / Pr - Prayer (2002) / Chapter 5—God’s Promises Concerning Prayer
God Answers Our Prayers When and How He Sees Best—Every saint who comes to God with a true heart, and sends his honest petitions to Him in faith, will have his prayers answered. Your faith must not let go of the promises of God, if you do not see or feel the immediate answer to your prayers. Be not afraid to trust God. Rely upon His sure promise: “Ask, and ye shall receive.”
God is too wise to err, and too good to withhold any good thing from His saints that walk uprightly. Man is erring, and although his petitions are sent up from an honest heart, he does not always ask for the things that are good for himself, or that will glorify God. When this is so, our wise and good Father hears our prayers, and will answer, sometimes immediately; but He gives us the things that are for our best good and His own glory. God gives us blessings; if we could look into His plan, we would clearly see that He knows what is best for us and that our prayers are answered. Nothing hurtful is given, but the blessing we need, in the place of something we asked for that would not be good for us, but to our hurt. {Pr 48.5}
I saw that if we do not feel immediate answers to our prayers, we should hold fast our faith, not allowing distrust to come in, for that will separate us from God. If our faith wavers, we shall receive nothing from Him. Our confidence in God should be strong; and when we need it most, the blessing will fall upon us like a shower of rain.—(Testimonies for the Church 1:120, 121.) {Pr 49.1}
God is perfect in all things. God is all knowing and His timing is perfect. We may think we know what is good for us, even things that are not of God. God knows what is good. He will answer our prayers in the way that is best for us. We may not know it at the time, but later we realize how God did answer our prayer but in a way that was for our own good. God loves us and does not want any of His children harmed. God has a plan for us all, and His plan is far superior to any plan we can ever imagine. We have to trust God in all things. Let go, and let God.
Dear God,
We come humbly, yet boldly to the foot of Your throne in thanksgiving, praise, and prayer. We thank You so much for loving us the way You do. Repeatedly we bring our petitions before You, yet You do not tire of hearing our voice. Many a time we pray for things that are not right in Your sight or good for us. You hear our cries but do not always answer in the way we would like. That is because You know the beginning from the end, and that, which is good and righteous. You know us better than we know ourselves. We are so grateful, that in Your wisdom, You answer our prayers in the way that is best for us. You keep us from making mistakes, from erring in our ways, from bringing hurt upon ourselves. We are so thankful that You have a plan for us. We sometimes make our own plans that come to naught. However, by Your grace, we receive miracles we were not expecting. Your plans are much greater than any idea we could even imagine. You have told us to expect great things from You. We thank You for this promise and all the wonderful promises and blessings You have in store for us. We thank You for teaching us to have patience, as You do not always answer our prayers immediately, rather in Your timing, which is always perfect. Help us hold on to our faith if answers to our prayers do not come immediately. Grant us strength and endurance to hold on, and not waver as a reed in the wind. We thank You that in due season we receive Your shower of blessings. We thank You for watching over us and keeping us safe. Praise be in Your name. We thank You for hearing and answering our prayers according to Your will, in the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
