“This is the [remarkable degree of] confidence which we [as believers are entitled to] have before Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, [that is consistent with His plan and purpose] He hears us. And if we know [for a face, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.” 1 John 5:14-15 AMP

I would hazard a guess that this is one of the biggest struggles we, as believers, face on a regular basis. Our difficulty lies in our impatience. We pray, begging and pleading with the Lord, for that which we desire most fervently, and just as little children battle the slow walk of time to Christmas morning, we battle the walk of time towards the answers to our prayers. To make things even more frustrating for the inherently impatient humans that we are, the answers may not look the way we envision they will, and so we may not immediately recognize the answers when they arrive.

Something else we must take into consideration is that the waiting period between asking and receiving will ALWAYS serve a purpose. Our issue is that we aren’t able to discern that purpose for ourselves, so we tend to assume that we are just being ignored or are low on God’s list of priorities. However, that is never the spiritual reality. Consider parents with multiple children. They love and care about the needs of each and every child with their whole heart. While they are bound by the laws of mortality, they are only able to tend to a finite number of things at one time, but God is omniscient and omnipresent. He sees, understands, and tends to every need of every one of His children simultaneously. And He does so in the way that is best for that child at that time.

How often do parents have to say “because I said so” to children who are too young to understand a certain level of reasoning? The parent understands the rationale, but they know their child isn’t quite ready to comprehend it, so they must trust that their mom or dad loves them and wants the best for them. That is what our Heavenly Father must do with us. He knows when we have reached a place where we are ready for the next step in His plan for our lives and He won’t give us that step until then.

Even with all of that knowledge and understanding, we still find it painful to wait on the Lord. No matter where we are, we all tend to get frustrated with waiting. The rise of incidents resulting from road rage are a great example of our growing impatience. We stand in line at the grocery store feeling frustrated with the person ahead of us as they whip out their giant book of coupons…and for what? So we can get through the line 5 minutes faster? We’d rather that person sacrifice more of their money instead of saving it for another area of great need in their lives, just so we can get moving a few minutes faster.

Everywhere we go and everything we do tends to require some kind of wait, so you’d think we’d be good at it by now. Instead, we keep trying to find ways to eliminate the waiting. Buy your groceries online and then just drive up and let someone else load them into your car. Drive-thru food with an over-abundance of calories, just to avoid time wasted sitting down for a meal of our own making (and likely with a much more reasonable calorie count). The shortcuts are endless…but still, they are never short enough for us pesky humans.

“Wait for an confidently expect the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes wait for and confidently expect the Lord.” Psalm 27:14 AMP

There are times when I try to focus and pray for my deepest needs, but find I’m unable to put words to prayer because of the depth of the need. I will stop and start repeatedly, never really getting out what I feel I need to say. I’m learning in those times to allow myself to sit quietly in the state of prayer, trust that God knows my heart and that the Spirit will always speak on my behalf. The enemy will try to find ways to put pressure and angst on anything he can manage, and it is so important that we don’t give him the power to put pressure on our prayer life. Even when we have no words, it doesn’t matter. God doesn’t need our words to know our wants and needs. He just wants to spend time with us, and the simple act of turning to Him, regardless of the time, place, or circumstance, is the most powerful prayer of all.

“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait eagerly for it with patience and composure. In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:25-26 AMP