We spend a lot of time in ministry waiting for God to answer our prayers—waiting for God‘s timing in our church, in our families, and in our own spiritual lives.

 

When we want God to answer our prayers, we must be willing to not only let God answer whenever he thinks is best but also however he thinks is best. 

 

God’s ways are always better and bigger and higher than ours.

What would have happened in the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth if God had answered their request for a baby immediately? 

They would have gotten a sweet little baby to love and cherish. 

But God delayed answering the request for a number of years, and then when he did answer, he gave them John the Baptist—the cousin of Jesus Christ, the only prophet to see the prophecies of Jesus fulfilled, and the forerunner of the Messiah.

Our problem is twofold: We ask too little, and we want it too soon. 

Ephesians 3:20 says, “God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine” (NCV). 

Think of the greatest thing in your imagination, and God can do even bigger than that.

Sometimes we believe that verse and try to claim it. We imagine the biggest thing we can pray for and think, “This is really going to impress God.” 

We pray for it and wait for the “Wow!” from God. 

Instead, God says, “Can’t you do any better than that? Where’s your creativity? Where’s your imagination? Why don’t you try believing me for something beyond what you can imagine?”

If God had answered some of our prayers exactly as we had asked them, we would have gotten shortchanged. 

We should be thankful God doesn’t answer all of our prayers.

His answers are always much greater than our requests.