Prayer's Timetable!

God always answers prayer. However, we often experience answered prayer only after long delays, and sometimes then it even looks like He is only making things worse. But, God answers the prayer, often choosing His own methods, time-tables, and purposes.


At least, that is what I learn from how God answered prayer in Exodus. From the burning bush, God says, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them EX 3:7

God doesn't say how long He had been hearing them, but we know that Moses had been in the desert for 40 years, and the pain had been going on for years before that. Israel had been in Egypt for over 400 years, but the Bible doesn’t say how many of those 400 years were slavery.

Obviously, God takes His time in accomplishing what He wants. He always chooses the time when things are ripe for the answer. Even after telling Moses that He had come down to rescue them, it was months, at the very least before Israel marched out of bondage and into the desert. In the process, God seemed to make things worse to accomplish His answer His way...at least, this is what Moses expressed in Exodus 5 Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all." Exodus 5:22-23

Our experience is similar. The process of God releasing us from our bondages may hurt. Sometimes His answers to prayer are painful, involving desert experiences. We may feel like we are going to die in the process before we get free.

We often find ourselves praying fervently that God will release our partner from bondage to various things, but then complain because God's methods bring us pain along with their freedom. Parents pray fervently that their child will be set free from bondage, but then try to rescue the child from God's methods of their recovery because it hurts to see their pain--yet God is in our pain and often uses pain to set them free. We complain about our employer, and then object when God uses a layoff to set us free and send us on into His promised land. We often don't even recognize God's answer in the painful experiences of life until long after we have walked into the promised land of His answers.

God does answer prayer. It is just that His answers are seldom in the way we envision nor on our time-table. But, then, God's methods are more for His purposes than for our comfort. The big question we face is: are we willing to be His instruments in the answer, and to walk the road from Egypt as He directs?

As my friend, John Laskey, said, "I have learned that anything worthwhile in life takes way longer, costs way more, and is way harder than I thought possible." We experience life this way because we have God in the box of our expectations. He operates on His own schedule and His own methods for His own purposes, as He told Moses, I will gain glory for myself. Are we willing to let God out of our box and answer our prayers His way in the process finding that His answers are far better than our expectations?