When we pray for something we need to wait for God’s answer. Like any good parent He will answer either yes, no or later. Like impatient children, we eagerly expect a yes but when He provides it in a seemingly miraculous way, we are often taken by surprise. When the answer is no, we ask why and then try to negotiate with God.
A good example of God’s yes and no answers was in a video on social media a few years ago. It was a woman with tears flowing as she told what had just happened to her. She stopped by the supermarket on her way home from work to pick up some items for dinner. There was a homeless man on a bench in front of the store trying to keep warm. As she entered the door, she felt prompting from the Holy Spirit, “He likes bananas”. She headed for the produce department and got some bananas, As she picked up the things she came in for, she found some items he could put in his back pack for later. Then she headed for the deli to get him some fried chicken. The Holy Spirit again prompted “No chicken”. She silently prayed that he needs something hot to eat now, but the answer was still “No”. She checked out and as she handed him the sack with the bananas and other items for him, a voice from behind her said, “This must be your lucky day. I brought you some fried chicken.” It was then that she understood why God told her no. When God says no, it is often because He has something even better in mind for us or, like the example above, he has someone else in mind.
It is the “later” or “not yet” answers that give us the most trouble in this era of instant gratification. Even as long as fifteen years ago my wife and I were waiting for a table at Cracker Barrel when a young couple came in and asked how long the wait would be. When told it would be about fifteen minutes, they looked at each other and then turned around and left even though it would take them at least that long to drive to another restaurant that would probably also have a wait list that time of day. The reason God wants us to wait is almost always because we aren’t able to handle it yet. It is like a twelve-year-old asking for the keys to the car.
What we do while we are waiting will have a lot to do with when God feels we are ready. When the Israelites were freed from generations of captivity in Egypt, they weren’t ready to enter the land God was preparing for them, so He kept them waiting in the wilderness until it became clear to God that most of that generation would never be ready to receive that land without murmuring and finding fault with everything. A bad attitude while waiting can turn God’s “not now” into “no”. Patience and gratitude are not just virtues – they can be the keys to opening God’s blessings.
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