"Patience! Patience! You are always in a hurry, but God is not.” C.H. Spurgeon
Are you like me…when it comes to prayer?
Father God has been and is still using the divine anvil of prayer to alter my being. Most of my Type A tendencies and character traits run completely counter and resistant to His ways and get in the way of this divine tapping and tinkering. As the process of understanding and knowing Him deeper unfolds to me, I have realized the maturing of my prayer life is a vital and integral part of this life-long journey. At times I have felt scuffed and banged up as the skillful fashioning hand of Father God has applied His perfect pressure on my rigid and stubborn natural man’s heart. I wish I could tell you that I have arrived or that I am even close to…but I haven’t and I still have a long distance to go.
When I started a purposeful journey to explore a deeper understanding of prayer in 2014, I dove into some works of a few select “men of God” of a bygone era. Spurgeon, Muller, Murray, P.T. Forsyth, Chambers, to name a few. I felt like I was climbing down into a hidden mine shaft inlaid with large and pure gold nuggets. I was overwhelmed. It was almost too much, too fast. How did these men get to where they were in their walk with Father and their depth of understanding of prayer? Their age had nothing to do with their wisdom and insight. In this mine shaft my state of feebleness was laid bare for my heart to plainly see. You’d think that after 50+ years as a Christ-follower I would have been further along. If the health of my prayer life was the dipstick to measure my walk with Father then my oil was not only 2 quarts low, it was also dirty. Better to realize this now I guess instead of proceeding down my walk in a mediocre manner and be spewed out as lukewarm water.
When I was operating my businesses, I was used to getting quick results from those who were under my charge and authority. Make the request, set a plan-of-action, execute and then enjoy the result. Simple, right? I wish prayer worked that way. Oh, how I have been tempered. I have requests that have been laid before the Throne for years now. They are still there. I know they are because I keep reminding Father they are. I’m the neighbor noisily knocking on His door at midnight. Luke 5:5-8. I also know these requests of mine that seem to be in His pending file are good, true, honorable and right. They conform to His stated will for us as revealed in His Word. I know He has a plan-of-action and I know He can execute this plan whenever He wants, yet…I wait.
I’m not saying in the least that my Father doesn’t answer prayer. Yes He does, with an exclamation point! My quiver is full of answered prayers, wonderful answers. His evidence of providential doings is ever before me. They remain in my mind and heart as my own “stones of Gilgal.” Joshua 4:19. But there are requests, big requests, prayers that still remain unanswered. In His providence, wisdom and love He has remained silent on these. As any immature child I see this call “to wait” as unloving sometimes. Someday I’ll grow up.
I have come to the conclusion that this process of waiting is probably just as important or even more so than the actual receiving of the fulfillment of my requests. It seems He is not quite ready to take me off His anvil. I was reminded of this the other day when reading some Oswald Chambers. “God will never tell you what He is going to do, He only cares about revealing Himself to you.” My Type A man wants to rise up and immediately respond, “but..but..but.” What I am finding out is that this “waiting” process is the very perfect tool He is using to answer His own prayer for me, in me, “That I be One with Him as His Son Jesus is One with Him.” John 17:21-24. My natural man loudly rails against this but if I can stay close enough to Him he can put a “new” mind in me which understands and heartfully gives thanks for His loving attendance and the working of His plan through the discipline of waiting. Lest you think I have arrived, these days of “thankfulness” for making me wait are many times a work in progress.
I have always loved the saying: “God is rarely early, but He is never late.” It’s not scripture but I believe it speaks truth. Moses would most likely agree with me when his back was literally up against the wall of the Red Sea shore.
Yes…yes I do believe He’ll never be late but I also pray many times as the desperate father of the possessed boy, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.” Mark 9:23 NIV. Jesus gets us. He understands. Even in our belief there can be hidden pockets of unbelief in the crevices of our hearts. He just wants us to step out and this stepping out many times may involve waiting, maybe even lengthy waiting. I am sighing as I write these words. Welcome to His array of hammers and mallets as He lovingly fashions us on His perfect anvil. After all, He is the master craftsman. No mistakes are ever to be made by Him, none. In His divine economy this waiting is but for a blink of the eye but as in any child, we see this waiting process as an eternity many times.
He will never be late in my life and He won’t be in yours either. And as I wait I can choose to carry on a wonderful conversation with Him that draws me closer to Him. Isn’t this what it is all about anyway? Being able to stroll with Father, side by side, carrying on a continual conversation while we live here in this decaying and aching land of the Grand Enemy. And what is the result? We get to have Joy, a Joy that is not of this world, a Joy the world will never be able to understand. And this Joy, His Joy, will carry us through.
“…but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.” Oswald Chambers
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