The Great Unknown: The long-suffering that accompanies unanswered prayers.

Most of us don’t process our needs toward God in the best way. We have all kinds of life struggles: a financial crisis, health issues, family strife… More often that not, we shoot off a laundry list of complaints or worse just assume He knows everything and don’t say anything at all. Neither of these are activating our faith.

I have access by faith into His grace where I now stand and rejoice in the hope of God’s glory manifesting in my life!  ~ Romans 5:2 (my personal confession version)

With most spiritual progress, much of what we’re waiting on depends upon our own attitude and mindset. If we are discouraged and lacking hope there’s a good chance we won’t see what we are wanting to see happen the way we want it to.

When faith and hope line up miracles of grace happen. If we allow faith to fill our hearts with hope they will rise up to meet God’s grace coming down. Wow! The possibilities are endless.

HOPE: the happy anticipation of something good.

FAITH: is the reality of things hoped for.

GRACE: God’s undeserved love put into action on our behalf.

Hope must come before faith. In other words, faith brings hope into reality by manifesting, bringing about, God’s supernatural grace in our natural realm.

Look at the image above:

Hope is our dream represented by a balloon. Our Faith fills up the Hope balloon which carries it up to God. As our Hope balloon rises, God sees our heart filled with faith and hope and then showers His Grace on our life in all sorts of ways.

Faith and hope are not prerequisites for God’s grace because there’s nothing we can do to deserve His favor. However, faith and hope put our hearts in the proper position to receive. God’s grace showers down on us as faith fills our hopeful hearts.

How does this help me deal with the great unknown of unanswered prayer? While we’re in this sufferably long state of waiting for God’s hand to move in our direction we must encourage ourselves by fueling our faith with God’s Word, which in turn fills our hearts with hope. As we prayerfully make our requests to God we can confidently sing a song of hope because the God of Heaven will come down in showers of grace upon us!

 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. ~ Romans 12:12 (NLT)

For some reason we think it’s permissible to doubt the truth of God’s Word about certain things. We give ourselves permission to worry or lose hope when God clearly tells us not to. Unbelief and complaining kept a generation of Israelites out of the promise land. Why do we thing we can get away with it?

As a recovering sex addict I am all too familiar with overcoming a bad thought life. Lustful thoughts, fantasy thoughts and memories of past people, places and behaviors plagued me in the early days of recovery. It’s easy to recognize these types of thoughts as sinful and easy to focus on removing them. After all they were sinful.

Thankfully, I don’t struggle with those kind of thoughts any longer. But what about other negative thoughts: doubt, unbelief, worry, complaining? The Bible calls these thoughts sinful, too. We should be rejecting doubt and discouragement just as much as we would reject any other sinful thoughts or physical behavior.

Just like we need to reject hateful and lustful thoughts, we need to reject worrisome, and discouraging thoughts. When we do reject these negative thoughts we make room for the Holy Sprit to fill us with God’s supernatural hope and peace.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

Like the stillness of the deep ocean floor, which is untouched by the turmoil and storms on the surface, we too can have stillness and calmness. By intentionally obeying the commanded scripture above, we are diving into the Presence of God that will provide the peace we so desperately seek.

It helps me to see my anxiety and worry as sin just like lustful fantasy thoughts are.  When I look at these negative thoughts and worries with a different perspective I am motivated to be more obedient. I am also encouraged that God will reward me with His promised peace when I do.

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Deep space and the deep ocean have something in common: Great Silence. Humans cannot maintain life in deep space or in the deep ocean without life-support. Our Life-Support breaks the great silence.

Silence and waiting on God are built in to the human experience. There are many places in Scripture where God was silent. People waited for days, sometimes years, for God’s answer. Moses waited 40 years in the desert before he was sent back to Egypt to save the Israelites. Joseph spent at least a decade in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Abraham and Sarah waited over 20 years for a child.

Time means nothing to God. He is outside of what we call time. He sees eternity from beginning to end, all at once. Our concept of time isn’t important. What’s important to remember is that God’s timing and His grace are for this moment. God is in the now!

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years 

and a thousand years is like a day. ~ 2 Peter 3:8

We don’t do well with long term silence.  Our psyches, our souls: our minds, wills, and emotions run from it. Silence makes us feel alone. And to be alone can be painful.  At times we experience a silence that screams so loud it is deafening. There is a suffocating silence that is so intense it is almost breath-taking, We may be asking, where is our life-support?

If the Lord had not been my help

my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. ~ Psalm 94:17

We must remember we aren’t alone. Our life-support is there! The Holy Spirit is with us all along. All we need to do is take a breath. Breathe in the Holy Breath of God… Don’t allow the silence to bring anxiety and fear. Trust God. He may keep you waiting, but He always remembers promises made and will appear in His perfect time to fulfill His Word.

Be still. Wait with God. Listen. Silence may be the answer today.

We have a seed but we need God’s help to bring it to life.

We begin first by planting. We have our seed: a plan or project. Even though we need God’s help to bring it to pass, it’s up to us to start working our plan. We must step out and do our part. God adds His Super to our natural and faith begins.

Then comes growing time. Seeds begin their growth in the dark. It may be a long time before we see a sprout show itself above ground. Faith is the step between the promise we seek and the promise received. We must take these baby steps each day toward our final goal until it is achieved or something better comes in its place.

When the sprout pops up it may take months, even years, before our seed bears any fruit. Here is where our faith is tested. We may begin to see our project taking some form or life, yet not fully grown. Patience and perseverance are required to press through to fruition. As we press into our plan, with God’s help we will see fulfillment in His perfect timing.

Are you growing in the dark? Waiting on the next rainfall or sunny day?

We must remember we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. ~ Colossians 1:11

A ceramic bowl is not valuable when it’s only a lump of clay. A knife left unsharpened is a useless tool or weapon. In the same way, diamonds in the rough are much more valuable after they’ve been cut, chiseled and polished.

We also are not as valuable to the world until the Crafter’s Hands have refined, sharpened, molded, cut, shaped and polished us. However, all this Craftwork can sometimes be painful to our emotions, and  circumstances.

God knows the people, places, jobs, habits, and situations in our life that need to be removed. And sometimes for these things to be removed we have to endure a dry season, a quiet time, a time-out, a testing time, a trial time.

God wants our life to be worthwhile. Whatever it takes to get us to be the person God wants us to become, He will do it.

You probably can reflect on times in your life that were a struggle. Yet looking back you know during that rough time of life you grew the most in your relationship with God.

Valuable things like gold and diamonds take time and work to purify.

So be truly glad. There is a wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire test and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when you faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor and on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. ~ I Peter 1:6-7

Take a few moments to enjoy this beautiful song from an artist I recently discovered: Ginny Owens.

Image Credit: NejroN / 123RF Stock Photo

Find freedom in the midst of:

Sickness

Addiction

Oppression

Poverty

Pain

Anguish

Depression

Worry

Strife

Temptation

Whatever our struggles are, even if God doesn’t deliver us from them but allows us to walk through them; we know His grace will be sufficient to carry us. This is where the joy and the “re-joying” comes. As we trust God’s plan, results and timing we can find the free grace that brings with it true freedom.

Always be full of joy in the Lord. ~ Philippians 4:4

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