God always answers our prayers

God always answers our prayers

Sometimes, the answer is ‘No!’
Sometimes, the answer is ‘Not now!’

But God always answers our prayers. Make no mistake about that. Prayer is a conversation with God. Prayer is when we open up our hearts to God our Father, sharing with Him our joys and sorrows, praising and glorifying His Name. Prayer is also the time when we ask our Father for stuff. But for many of us, the asking part is all that we do.

Many of us conceive of a God who is the Almighty vending machine. In goes a prayer, out comes our wish. We ask God for money when we don’t work for it, better health when we don’t eat right and don’t exercise, good relationships when we do nothing to cultivate them, perseverance when our natural tendency is to turn tail and run at the slightest hint of adversity, good grades when we have not studied, deliverance after we got ourselves into a huge mess, etc etc etc. Poor God. His children never talk to him except to ask Him for this or that. We just ask and ask and ask. And we expect immediate delivery too.

And the answer we expect is always yes. God help Himself should His answer turn out to be No or Not now. God has no leeway to act. We already know what we want and God just has to do it.
We can't let God be God.

If this is your experience of prayer and if this is your expectation of God, then perhaps this Lenten season is the time to re-evaluate your relationship with God.

I think that it’s important, as we observe the Lenten precept of Prayer, to know how to pray and what to expect.

Here's an easy way to remember what prayer is, what are the ACTS of prayer.

A doration
C ontrition
T hanksgiving
S upplication

I hope to write more about this tomorrow, so do look for it. But in the mean time, remember this.

God always answers our prayers

Sometimes, the answer is ‘No!’
Sometimes, the answer is ‘Not now!’

But He always answers.
Pray for the grace to accept His answer in faith.

But He sometimes answers 'No' or 'Not now'.