It’s an honest man who admits that he is not all that he should be, or could be, or may be. Even when we don’t know our own hearts, God knows, and He knows what we need. Sometimes we are not yet ready for God to give us some blessing. Sometimes we are not yet ready for God to answer a prayer request.
“Often God delays that he may bring us lower in the dust before him. He leads us into such views that we shall not be puffed up, and such that the blessing, given, shall not injure us. To secure this object, often delays the answer long. We are not low enough, so that he can give us the blessing without mischief to ourselves.
Sometimes God delays for the sake apparently of drawing us into more and mightier prayer. We become straitened, and agonized. Then God puts it into our hearts to do something yet more for the soul prayed for. Our experience in prayer reveals this. Then when we have done it, and are in every respect prepared, God sends an arrow and does the work.” – Charles Finney
It’s not that God doesn’t want to answer prayer or that He is neglecting some good outcome, but rather that God knows all good. He knows what we need, when we need it. He knows how the answer to prayer will come to fruition, and He knows all the effects the answer will cause.
If we pray for revival, but do not see one, it may be that we are not yet ready. If we pray for the health of another brother or sister and they are not healed, it may be that we have not yet truly agonized over them in prayer. It may be that they themselves are not yet ready to be healed, but need to walk a bit longer in the valley of the shadow of death, to understand the “thou art with me” in Psalms 23.
Sometimes God delays an answer to prayer, to prepare us for a wonderful blessing. Don’t give up praying if God delays. The windows of heaven may be just about to open and pour out a blessing. God may be just about to stop the sun in the sky.
