1 John 5:15
[15] “And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
I thought about a certain prayer request that was on my heart. It was not something that I desired for myself, but for the church that I pastor. I’ll be honest, the petition looked impossible. In fact, my flesh told me repeatedly that there was no way it would be granted.
In spite of my flesh, my Father said to me, pray. I sought God about it, earnestly asking him to answer the prayer. Instead of it looking like God was going to answer, it looked more and more like it would never happen. What kept me asking, was that I could clearly see it was the will of God. I knew in spite of my flesh, and in spite of how impossible it looked, that God promised in his Word that he would grant it. So, for four years I prayed, and asked the Lord to do this certain thing.
Finally, one morning in prayer I felt the urgency, not only to pray about it, but to ask God to answer it in a specific timeline. I began praying that he would answer it by the end of the year. I said, “Lord, if you choose not to, I’ll keep asking until your will has been accomplished. But, I’m asking you to do it by the end of the year”. I don’t know how to explain this, and don’t know if you will believe it, but I spoke to my wife at Thanksgiving, and told her that one of the things I was most thankful for, was that God was going to answer this prayer by the end of the year. I’m glad to testify, that on the last Sunday of the year, God answered that prayer! The answer was on the way four years ago. He just wanted me to learn more and more that I can trust him. I’m glad we can know that our prayer has been heard, and the answer is on the way.