“ No Instant Answers To Prayer”

Originally Posted Jan. 19, 2021

It seems we’re always in a hurry. New products are successful because they’re faster. The new 5G cell phones are going to provide higher download speeds. Wow, that means that I can get quicker access to information. Now whether or not I need this information is another question, but at least I can get it faster…..hmmmmmm.

I’ve been watching the series “Mountain Men”. One of the men lives alone in Alaska trapping animals for a living. He has to fly hundreds of miles in a small plane to get to his cabin. He is completely alone (except for the cameraman) in the Alaskan wilderness, where he spends the sub-zero winters living in a one-room cabin. During the fleeting daylight hours, he sets up his trapline, which catches everything from lynx to mink to marten. Yet even here, he is always rushing, he’s in a hurry…to beat the weather, to get his traplines down, to fly back to sell his furs.  While I sit on my couch, I’m exhausted watching him race about. “Marty, slow down…take a break”.

I remember when instant mashed potatoes were introduced commercially in 1957 and became an “instant” success; by 1960 six processors had turned more than four million bushels of potatoes into flakes. Wow, now you could get your mashed potatoes quicker….”faster is always better”. So in light of this, I need to hurry up and finish this BLOG. 

Well, I think we can sometimes take our “hurry up” attitude to our prayer. I ask the Lord to help me with something in my life…getting rid of sin, getting holier. Lord please heal my friend who is sick. Lord you need to “fix our country”, it’s a real mess. Lord, I’ve been asking you this for a long time … did you hear me…are you going to help me….I don’t see any evidence. Hurry Lord !!! 

Well, the Lord is perfect and he answers our prayers in a perfect way. There’s a perfect economy in how he hears and answers our prayer. He’s about loving us and those we are praying for. There’s a perfect “timing” to his answers. He changes us through the process….sometimes it takes time. God is not in a hurry. He is perfect. So, we may want “instant mashed potatoes”, but God doesn’t provide “instant answers to prayer”. He provides perfect answers to prayer. 

So, let’s take a deep breath and allow the Lord to take care of us in his perfect time….even though it’s often not our time.