Sometimes I have a hard time waiting on an answer to prayer. I tend to want it to be a magic formula where I say the right things and then instantly have the answers. Sometimes, that’s exactly how it works, other times, more often than not, that isn’t the way it works. That being said though, I don’t think it is because we aren’t heard. Rather, there are reasons beyond our knowledge that we don’t have an immediate answer.

We learned recently in church about the story in Genesis 24 about Abraham’s servant finding a wife for Isaac. A portion of that story hit me and I have been thinking about how I wish my prayers were answered the way the servant’s was. “Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.” Genesis 24:12-15 (NIV, Emphasis added). I want all my prayers to be answered before I finish praying. I want to open my eyes and see my answer walking down the path for my very specific prayers. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it typically happens. More often than not I feel a little more like the persistent widow in Luke 18 who through her persistence finally got an answer. I struggle in that way though too. Sometimes I don’t even have the persistence to see it though. I give up way to easily and let the struggles and the cares of this world discourage me.

Daniel did not see the instant results of his prayer in Daniel 10. He prayed, mourned, and fasted for 21 days before there was a breakthrough. What happens in his story though, should help to encourage all of us. When he finally received his answer, we find out that God heard his prayer from the very beginning. “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.” Daniel 10:12-13 (NIV, Emphasis added). In Daniel’s case, there were bigger, spiritual forces at work that prevented the immediate answers. That didn’t mean he wasn’t heard though. What it did mean though, was that he needed to press in and get more serious about praying to see that breakthrough.

Why is that so hard? Why does it seem like no matter how many prayers I have had answered, I still feel like the next time I pray, I am not heard? Or why do I struggle to keep focused in my prayers? In this world, it is so easy to let everything else distract us that we even forget to pray. I live in that world right now. As you may, or may not, know, my husband and I made some major life changes in the last year. We uprooted our family and moved 200 miles from everything we had ever known for nearly our entire married life. We have had to lay so many of the blessings God has given us on the altar, and just trust that God is in the middle of this thing. That isn’t always easy, and hasn’t always been an easy thing for me. Honestly though, I have figured out that so many of those things we have had to lay down, I held onto way too tightly and for too long. I also realized how I put way too much trust in man, rather than God. God has a plan in all of the things we experience. Whether it is a hard time of dealing with loss, a time of blessings, or somewhere in between, He has a plan and knows our needs. “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Matthew 6:6-8 (NLT, Emphasis added).

So, next time you and I pray, I hope that we will recall that even before we finish, God knows what we need. I also hope that we will learn how to trust that, no matter what we are experiencing, God has a plan.