Answers to Prayer

Over the years I have come to learn a few things about prayer.  More specifically I have come to learn something about answers to prayer.  For example, there are at least three ways that answers come to us.  At times we ask for a specific answer to a question or a solution to a problem and God will simply provide the answer or solution to us.  Other times He wants us to bring a solution to Him and seek ratification that the answer or solution is correct.  He may even have us do the ground work and then turn the impossible over to Him, to whom all things are possible.  I think that other times He sits back and says to us, “You figure this one out on your own.  You have all the resources you need to find the answer or solution.  You need to figure this out on your own to fulfill your own growth potential.”

Regardless, God answers prayers.  I’ve frequently had answers to my prayers that were not to my liking, but over time I’ve seen the value in doing things His way and not my way.  I’ve also found that answers always come according to His timing.  In the end, when we turn our lives over to Him, He is in charge of the clock and calendar and things work out.  And finally, while answers may come to us in the form of a thought or a “still small voice”, it is just as likely to come in some unexpected form.  It might be something that somebody says or it might even be through a chain of events. 

For me, answers and solutions have come in the still of the night or when I am in sacred places or when I’m alone in the mountains or driving long distances in my car.  Sometimes the answers come in the early waking hours when my mind is fresh and open and ready to receive His inspiration.  Though I have spent much time on my knees seeking guidance, answers have never come to me while there.  However, there are those times of exigency when He has not made me wait, but has delivered His will to me almost before I have been able to ask.  Whichever, He hears and answers in His own time and in His own way.