Thursday, November 14, 2013

Once you are all prayed up what’s next?

After you have prayed over a situation, what do you do next?  Do you continue to pursue the situation or do you remain still waiting upon the Lord to answer?  And what exactly does it mean to wait upon the Lord to answer, anyways?

This reminds me of Abraham when God promised him that his 90 year old barren wife, Sarah, would bear him son.  Abraham and Sarah decided to help God and make this promise come to pass by having a son with Hagar, Sarah’s servant.  Consequently, they realized that was not the plan God had for them, as it was not the son God had promised them.

I can’t tell you how many times I have attempted to help God accomplish the promises He had for me.  I realized after I had impulsively responded to my situation that waiting upon God was always the right thing to do.  The bible says in Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.”  What a powerful statement! God can do it all on His own!  WOW!
In Acts 16:25 it says that about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Great lesson here to learn, while Paul and Silas were all prayed up waiting upon the Lord they decided to praise and sing hymns to the Lord.  Of course, we are going to worry, but we shouldn’t be mentally consumed by it, it shouldn’t paralyze us to the point that we can’t focus on anything else.  Proverbs 4:23 says, “More than anything you guard and protect your mind, for it determines the course of your life.  I can’t stress this enough, wait upon the Lord to answer, let it go, and don’t ponder over it. 

As you wait, God will start working things out, while simultaneously, letting you know what to do next. When we go ahead of the Lord, we mess up His plans for us.  At times, some of us have wondered why didn’t God promise come to pass, well it might have been because our impulsive behavior did not allow God to do His will in our situation.  Hebrew 6:12 says, “That you may not become spiritually dull and indifferent, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”  Sometimes, we are our own stumbling block.  We have become a society obsessed with instant gratification.  We want it and we want it now!  Psalms 25:5 says, Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.

When we move forward with our plans without God’s approval, we will experience difficulties.  However, we are thankful that God knows the intention of our hearts and knows that we are not perfect. Paul clearly states in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “But we live (walk) by faith, not by what we see.”  The eyes are deceiving because when we look at things we see beauty, we imagine that things will always work out exactly has planned. However, we are to be extremely careful because what seems beautiful to the eyes of the beholder can be very destructive to us. 

We are not to think that we know what is best for us, God is in charge, and we ought not to play god with our lives.  We have to wait, and be silent in order to be sensitive to God’s voice at all times.  Psalms 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. 

+Encourage Women to Stand in Faith

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