Thank you for answering us when we Pray

Verses: Psalms 138: 1 - 8

Song inspired by the chapter:  Song has been uploaded from YouTube.com and is not my original.

My thoughts about the verses:

God will answer your prayers if you ask God for help.  We often fear that our requests are so small that God will not hear our prayers.  We fear that God will think our prayers are selfish.  We even fear that God will help others that will hurt us even though we are true followers of the Living God.

The question has always been why do we fear that God will ignore our request?  Simple we have had times in our life that we feel our prayers are not answered when we want them.  We also have times that we do not get the answer that we want.  There is even times that it feels that those that are against us win.

Let us look at each situation individually.  Why does it that so much time for our prayers to be answered?  We have this thought that when we pray it should be immediate.  We should not have to continue with our problem. We think that if we have to wait we are not heard.  If we are not heard then we need to solve the problem ourselves.  When we try to fix it ourselves we often complicate the issue that we first had.

Think on it like this.  How many times in the Bible did people pray yet had to wait for the answer.  The prayer eventually was fulfilled yet there was a lesson that the person had to learn.  Think about the struggles David went through.  He had a heart of prayer yet there were times that he had to go in hiding because his prayer was not answered immediately.  He had a lesson to learn.  So we have to remember that God’s time might be different than our time.  Yet, God will listen and will help you in God’s time.

So we accept that our prayer will come in God’s time.  Yet why do we not get what we ask for every time?   Isn’t that the way we feel.  We waited for you answer but we didn’t get what we expected.  We often times get frustrated with God because we think that we are doing what we are supposed to do yet, God doesn’t give us what we think we need.

Yet, think back to the song “Unanswered Prayers.”  Think on those prayers that were not answered the way you wanted.  Isn’t it true that we get what we really need?  God answered our prayer by not giving us what we wanted.   We thought we needed one thing but in actually we discover that God know well.

Lastly, if God is listening to us why does it feel like others are able to rise up against us.  We feel as if God is letting our enemies win battles against us.  We sometimes even feel defeated because we think that we have done something that is keeping God from hearing our prayers.

We need to remember that God does not abandon us.  God stays by our side.  Our enemy may when small battles but they will not defeat us.  They will be never being able to defeat us.  We have God on our side and God will get us through.  Even though it might feel like we have been abandoned God is there.  We are not to fear. 

Think about the moment that Jesus died on the cross.  Do you not think that all of the disciples felt defeated?  Yet, three days later Jesus arose out of the grave.  Imagine the rejoicing that happened as they learned that Jesus was alive.  Keep that in mind the next time you think that your enemy is going to destroy. 

Prayer:

Dear God we thank you for all that you do.  We thank you for unanswered prayers.  We thank you for answering our prayers in your time.  Thank you for standing with us all the way to the end of our battle.  Help us to not lose our faith.  Help us to remember that you are there with us all the time.  Help us to continue to reach out to you in our times of need.  In your Holy Name we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Do you doubt that God is listening to your prayers?  Have you accepted that unanswered prayers may be exactly what we need in our life?  Are you willing to give your life over to God knowing that God will always be there for you?