YES! NO! WAIT! – GOD’S ANSWER TO HIS SAINTS’ PRAYER

There is no unanswered prayer if we have prayed indeed to seek God’s will and put our mind apart from any other motive we may have. If our focus is indeed the will of God, then either of these three is an answer: Yes, No, or Wait.

Though a Yes seems to be more suitable and favorable, it is on this basis we give many of our testimonies to the fact that God answers prayer. What happens when He says No or Wait? Are these also answers worth thanking God for? Yes, they are as perfectly worthy of praising God for as well as the “Yes”. There are times when God had said No to me, though not pleasant at the time but in the end, I ended up thanking Him for saying No to me. The truth is that we don’t usually see the big picture, we don’t know tomorrow, we are not aware of the danger in what seems to be harmless to us, but He sees the end from the beginning.

Though a No looks more like a rejection, and a Wait more hopefully than a No, yet God who formed and saved His saint by His omnipotence also desires to guide his future by His omniscience. In all these answers, one key reality in the heart of the saint who sincerely prays for His will is His omnipresence – the presence of God which passes all understanding and comes with peace even amid the battles and storms. The presence of God can be so amazing in the sense that though the desired answer is not received, the saint is at rest knowing this great truth of God’s goodness.  The goodness of God to His saint in response to the saint’s petition is defined in this rephrased word of the Lord;

“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” – (Matthew 7:9-11)

Fact 1. God is far better, wiser, and loving than our earthly parents.

Fact 2. He will not give His saint snake even though he asks for it. Marry her for me for she suits me well said Samson to his parent, and this led to his ruin. If the saint gets all he wants then God is not His Father.

Fact 3. No chastening is pleasant but the end is joy, yet he whom the Father loves He chastises and control. (Hebrews 12:6, 11)

Rather than give the saint what he wants out of His will, God will lovingly say No, and in most cases give something better to His saint. His will is best for us – the earlier we realize this; the easier we let Him lead us into His perfect plan for us; the less we struggle; and the faster we reach our goals.

The soul of the saint on many occasions is the troublemaker, what it desires is almost in opposition to what the will of God is, it fights, murmurs, and complains – it arrogantly accuses God of not loving and caring as compared to what His promises stated. Oftentimes, it goes the rebellious way to come back flat if alive to cry at his Father’s feet. I wonder how God puts up with us, how great His mercies are to His saints even when we have gone our own way, He lovingly puts us back on track when we return broken.

To the natural man, waiting is tedious. The average man hates to wait for anything, as seen everywhere whether in the mall or on railway platforms or even while driving. No one seems to want to wait for the other. Were it not for speed breakers and traffic lights, the fatal impact of the human rush would have been more drastic than what we see today; even at that, no one wants to wait. God in building His saint applies this control to furnish and equip him on his journey to heaven. It is the greatest test of endurance and patience (two great virtues that will help the saint finish his course on high). Only the patient can wait, yet it takes endurance to wait!

‘Ye have heard of the patience of Job…’

The endurance capacity of the soul to trustingly lean away from natural insights and wisdom, unto heaven’s guide and ways is his greatest virtue.  Though it is a very difficult process, its blessedness in brooding courage, faith, and rest in God’s unfailing goodness will make the saint fit unto glory.

I perceive the Wait answer as a perfecting state, in which God is doing some thorough work in the soul as well as refining the purpose of the prayer prayed. Waiting does incredible things, it clears the motives and intentions; it removes idols where any is present; it gives the soul room for careful examination of what God’s will is (if we ask anything according to His will not our will, here the soul checks if truly that which he petitions God for is God’s will or the lust to consume of himself?), and in other cases, it is God’s means of trying His saint in order to know if the profession of his faith is genuine or mere lips service. To check whether His saint will delight himself in his God though the desires of his heart seem to be withheld. God still speaks to His people, but do you hear Him? Do you take Him at His words or do you shrink when He chides or scolds? Are there idols in your heart with which you pray? Are your motives clean and sincere? Prayerfully answer these.

One major anchor of the saint is that he cannot be misguided if his motives are correct and if he allows God to correct them. Listen to this matching order and pilgrim’s song of the saints on their way to the New Jerusalem, ‘all things work together for good to them that loved God and are the called according to His purpose’. I may not know how to interpret this said truth to the saints when all thing seems to be falling apart; when sickness, poverty, fear, pains, death, and other troubles lurk within and without; but the writer of the Book of James by the Holy Ghost concluded the Book of Job by saying ‘God is pitiful and of tender mercy – and this is the end of the Lord’ – (James 5:11).

The saint must never doubt God’s love under any of these circumstances, it is still a glorious fact to those who loved the Lord that He still answers prayers and because His love is visible to us, we can say with Paul; God who did not spare His Son but gave Him up to us, shall He not freely with Him give us all things? An extension to the words of the Lord that says: ‘He shall give good things to them that ask Him’ – (Mathew 7:11). So cheer up saint, God is on your side, do not be cast down O soul, when all hope is gone then does God’s power prevail the most.

So pray on.

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