When Answers to Prayer Seem To Take Forever

Do you ever have those days, weeks, months, years, and even decades when you have prayed for a specific thing and nothing ever seems to happen in that area of your life.

My Own Personal Challenges

I know that I have faced some challenges to my faith and lately when I have been in prayer, there are times when I ask God if praying is really even worth the effort. All throughout my life, God has told me that he was planning to use me for great things. Within the past two years I lost 3 family members, (father, brother, and sister), my marriage has dissolved, I got an easy boring job that anyone could do, but I still lost it through no fault of my own. I live in a tiny travel trailer with no heat (hope to get it this week). I am financially living on fumes and God’s grace at the moment. I am not twenty, thirty, forty, or even fifty years old any more and I was thinking that if my prayers are going to be answered, God had better hurry up and start answering a few of them.

Remember Abraham?

As I was complaining to God about all of the things that were going wrong in my life and how I never seemed to catch a break, God reminded me of Abraham. At one point, Abraham had about given up on the answers to his prayers. He prayed to God for a son. He was eighty years old and he was about ready to give up. His wife was past her child bearing years and had not been able to produce a son for him. Abraham had finally resigned to the idea that his servant would inherit all of his wealth. However, one day God came to him and told him that he would father a son. For years it didn’t happen.

Helping God is A No-No

Then Abraham decided that he would help God make it happen and he made the mistake of fathering a child with his wife’s servant Hagar. It was the biggest mistake of Abraham’s life. The so called descendants of Hagar, the servant woman have been a problem ever since.
However, God eventually did exactly as he promised. He gave Abraham and his wife Sarah a son whom they named Isaac or laughter.

A Lesson Learned

The important lesson that we can learn from Abraham’s experience is to first and always trust God. Second, God doesn’t need our help to make things happen. Three, God wants us to wait for his perfect plan and it always brings joy and yes, even laughter.

A New Undertaking

Last Sunday I gave my first sermon at my new church. The church didn’t have a huge attendance (three of us were there), but it was an anointed service. Come visit any time. This appointment was a real miracle for me. Even after all of the plotting and scheming that I have done over the years of “making something happen”, one day I saw that my friend was getting ready to go out as an evangelist and that they wanted someone to come and take over their pastor-ship at their church. I called and here I am the pastor of a small church. Scare me? Yes, you bet it does. I realize the responsibility that I  now possess. What are God’s plans in all this? I will continue to go through all of this one day at a time.

Donna Brown is the Pastor of Faith in God Church in Brandsville, Missouri. . As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and most recently, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her book, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .