The Waiting Prayer
God bestows a priceless privilege
on his children. He bids us to draw near to Him with sincere hearts
and the full assurance of faith, knowing that all our sins have
been cleansed by the shedding of Christ’s blood (Heb. 10:22). He
smiles as we confidently come to him with our praises, confessions
and petitions. For five summers groups of women from our church
have gathered together to partake of the privilege of coming to
God in 24-hour prayer and fasting retreats.
We have witnessed numerous answers to incredibly bold prayers and
returned to offer our thanks to God. A seemingly hopeless financial
problem was solved when a distant uncle died and left an unexpected
inheritance. (I thought that only happened in the movies.) God resolved
more than one medical crisis. Children were prayed through college
and into careers. Grandchildren were safely born into the world
with great blessings.
God
heard our prayers for one husband in a spiral of depression and
career burnout. After receiving counseling and a new position, this
man now helps others going through similar problems. A bitter attitude
about an unbearable job situation changed, and that testimony led
to the salvation of others in the workplace, dramatically improving
the environment.
God grounded our faith as we focused on His sufficiency and power
and praised Him for His faithfulness. We’ve all seen answers; but
there are some requests we continue to lift before God. We hold
unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful
(Heb. 10:23). The waiting is hard, but it stretches our faith
and builds our spiritual muscles.
At our first annual prayer gathering, Ann attended and shared a
request from deep within her heart. Ann knows first hand the pain
of marriage to an unbeliever. Twenty-one years before, her husband
left her pregnant and alone to raise their infant daughter. Her
now-grown daughter had entered into an unhealthy relationship with
a non-Christian man. Ann lived in fear for her daughter. Every year
we would meet and pray for the relationship to break up or for the
man to become a Christian, but nothing changed.
As Ann waited, God continued to teach her a myriad of spiritual
lessons. God gave her practice in releasing her worry, holding her
tongue, and recognizing the areas of her own control—or more accurately,
the areas where she lacked any control. More and more Ann found
herself trusting God with the situation. On occasion she would cry
out to God, wondering why her prayer remained unanswered while others
rejoiced in God’s abundant provisions.
During
our fifth prayer retreat, Ann shared a beautiful poem on the value
of waiting. It extolled the benefits of learning to wait on the
Lord, trusting and resting in His perfect timing. The tears in Ann’s
eyes expressed her understanding of the truths she had learned from
God over the years.
Just four days after our day of prayer I receive this note from
Ann: “I have received the call tonight that I have been praying
for all these years. It was from my daughter telling me that she
and her boyfriend have broken up and she still wants prayer for
his salvation. God is so very good.” Ann has no way of knowing what
God has in store for her daughter, but she knows to trust fully
in His faithfulness.
No one likes to wait, especially a mother wanting the best for her
child; however, God often uses the waiting to draw us closer to
Him, to build our dependency on Him, and to demonstrate His faithful
love.
Cyndie Hamley
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