When We Pray

Many times we pray asking God for certain things. We may ask He give us strength to handle a situation. We may ask He help us in the area of our finances. We may ask for His guidance in what to do in a relationship. We may ask that He help us have more patience or a more caring attitude with a particular person.

1 Peter 5:10-11 “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen.”

However, when we pray we need to be ready to take some type of action. We can’t expect God to just drop things in our laps. A lot of times when we pray for something, we need to be ready for struggles. God doesn’t always give us the easy way to fix a situation. We can’t expect to pray and then get up and see that all our problems are solved.

When we pray, we may not get the answer we think we need. But we will get God’s answer. It may not be an easy fix, but He will help us through our struggles. He will lead us in His own way. We should look at each opportunity as a chance to grow closer to God. We should look at each struggle as a story to use to witness to others.

1 Peter 5:6-6 “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”

When we pray for something, we may see that we have more struggles than before. We may find things becoming more difficult due rather than easier. We may find that the person who we are trying to deal with and be nice to becomes more difficult to have a conversation with.

When that happens, it isn’t because God isn’t listening. It is because God is working to strengthen us. We are having more difficulties than before because He wants us to completely turn to Him in all we do. He wants us to understand the struggles will pass and that He will lead us through them.

An example is when we pray for financial help, we may see that more unexpected bills come in. We may have some things in the house break down that need repair. We may have things come up where we have to pay for something we hadn’t planned on.

These situations occur so we have opportunities to grow stronger in that area. These opportunities occur so we turn to God and put our trust in Him. Just because we go through weeks or months of suffering and struggling in an area we are praying for God to help us in, it doesn’t mean God isn’t with us. He is and wants us to turn to Him.

When we pray, we need to be ready. We need to be ready for God’s answer in His way. He may not give us the answer we believe we need. His answer may be the opposite of what we are looking for. We need to keep our eyes and ears open for anything that would be an opportunity to grow and learn in the area we are praying about.

We need to stay aware of God in all the struggles we are having. When things continue to happen and we are bombarded with more issues, we need to remember God in each one. Our awareness of God and dependence on Him will help us lean on Him each and every time things come up.

We need to take action by praying and reading His word and waiting on His answer. When we pray over and over and read His word continually, He will reveal His answer to us. When we think about what He is trying to teach us, we will see what He wants us to do.

As we continue to pray and go through the issues we have to deal with, things will become easier. We will know we can count on God to help us. The struggles may not disappear as we had hoped, but God will guide us through each situation. We will grow closer to Him and find opportunities to help others from the experiences He provides to us so we can make a difference.