Daniel 10:12 “Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.”
For years, I had prayed for my mother’s salvation. She had been raised in a Shintoist culture and had never really been exposed to Christianity. I remember when I accepted Christ as my Saviour. I was a young girl, and I began fervently sharing the gospel with my mother. All through my teen years I would witness, and she would patiently listen, smile, and tell me that was nice, but never did she receive Christ as her personal Saviour. As my faith grew along with my years, the ramification of not receiving Christ was foremost in my mind when it came to my mother, so I prayed even more for her salvation. I could not understand why God was not answering my prayer! Was it not according to His will? (Of course it was! The Bible states in 2 Peter 3:9 that “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”) What about my mother? I did not understand at all.
The prophet Daniel also had times of seemingly unanswered prayer in his own life. It’s recorded in the Biblical book that bears his name of a time when an angel of God came to him and explained the delay of his prayer’s answer. Daniel was told that he had indeed been heard by God the very moment he prayed, and that an angel had been sent from heaven as a result of that prayer. However, the answer was slow in its arrival due to a spiritual battle in which this angel was involved. At the completion of that battle, the angel continued on to Daniel with God’s response to the prayer.
Based on the truth and consistency of Scripture, I can be assured that God hears my prayers today, and that He heard my prayer for my mother the moment I first asked Him to open her eyes to the truth of the gospel. I don’t know why He didn’t answer that prayer in my time frame. The detainments in receiving answers to prayer are not always known to us, but the fact that God does answer prayer is guaranteed in the Bible. There are a plethora of verses regarding that very issue (John 15:7, Mark 11:24, Matthew 7:7-8, John 14:14, etc.). I must be patient and trust in God’s Word. Like Daniel, I must seek to understand the ways of God, and pray with a humble heart. And then, as Jesus said in Matthew 21:21, I must have faith that God will answer my prayer.
1 John 5:14-15 says “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” God promises that He will answer anything we ask of Him if it is according to His will. Sometimes I ask amiss, and God withholds it for my own good. While I may struggle with this, it occurs to me that if I pray for something that is contrary to God’s will, do I really want Him to answer that? I only want what is best for my life and the lives of those around me, so when God withholds an answer to a prayer, I must remember that it may be because it is not according to His will, and therefore it is not best for me.
Regarding my prayer for my mother, God did answer it… but He waited more than twenty years to do so. The year before my mother died, He gave me the wonderful privilege of being at my mother’s side as she prayed for Jesus’ forgiveness of sins and accepted Him as her Saviour. I may never know why God waited so long to answer my prayer, but when He did, it was the best time ever for her and me!
“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” – Psalm 37:4-5
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How has waiting for God’s answers helped you to grow in your faith?