God Answers Seemingly Unanswered Prayers
Prayer, Part #3
*** I’ve had several inspirations to write on subjects other than the fruits of the Spirit, so we will take a brief break on that series and do a couple of stand alone posts and then go back and finish the Fruits of the Spirit Series.
I was reading Job and saw something I’d never seen before.
Job, a man the Bible refers to as “… blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.” (Job 1:1b), loses his children, his wealth, and then his health. He is suffering immensely. Several friends come to console him, but instead start falsely accusing him of horrible sins. They should’ve known better and they shouldn’t have judged Job based on what was happening to him instead of how he lived his life.
After losing his family, his wealth, and his health, now his friends are defaming his godly reputation. In one of his soliloquies, after naming all of the things he has lost he prays this prayer:
“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever! (Job 19:23-24)
I think every other time I had read these verses I just thought that was an odd request, but I saw something different this time. Job prayed that “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!” Little did Job know, God would write his words in the Bible, God’s book, the most published book in history. His words would be read as an example to us for over 4,000 years. He couldn’t have imagined that his prayer would be answered this way.
He prayed, “That with an iron stylus and lead, They were engraved in the rock forever!” His words are written by God so they will last as long as the rocks on which he wished them to be engraved. Job didn’t know his prayer would/was being answered, but it was. It was being answered in ways beyond his greatest imagining. When God answers, he usually answers in big ways, even if not in our timing or in our ways.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)
As abandoned as Job felt and as unfairly as he felt he was treated, he never lost faith in God or His goodness. The next verse in Job states:
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. (Job 19:25)
There may be times it feels like God is not with you, but He is. There may be times it feels like He isn’t listening, but He is. There may be times it feels like He will never answer your prayers, but He will. The important thing is to never lose faith in His power, His goodness, or His love.
God’s answers to prayers may not be exactly what you asked for and they rarely happen in our desired timing, but He gives us what we need and what is for our and other’s best and He never makes a mistake.
Trust Jesus.
your sister in Christ,
Christy
Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated
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