Not Yet (b) | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Not Yet (b) | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ken Grant
05/27/20
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There is possibly no topic discussed in such detail in the Christian community as that of prayer. The idea that we as frail human beings are able to talk to the creator of the universe and ask for things to happen, people to be healed, weather to be altered, and any number of other requests clearly stretches the imagination. While most of us encounter the idea of prayer at a young age, for the follower of Jesus the concept of prayer is raised to an entirely new level. While learning about prayer and all of its dimensions, I was introduced to an approach to teaching about prayer that was both intriguing and frustrating. The approach explained that God answers our prayers in one of three ways: yes, no, and not yet. While the affirmative and negative were to be expected, it was the idea of not yet that most caught my attention. I, like most people, am not particularly patient and the truth that God would sometimes want me to wait for an answer honestly confounded me to no end. Yet, as I grew in my faith, I have come to realize that it is in the midst of the not yet that God often does the most profound work in my inner Christian life.

Answers to prayer are inordinately complex. While I as a petitioner can only see dimly, my Lord sees all and will only act when all of the pieces of the puzzle are in place. It is often in the midst of waiting for an answer to prayer that I learn more about the heart of the Father as well as the wickedness of my own heart and my tendency toward selfishness at the expense of others. It is often too easy for me to fall into the mode of the selfish child who demands everything now no matter the cost or the impact. As the answer I desire is delayed, I often become aware of how I am changing and how my desires are changing as well. The ultimate joy is to find that when an answer does come that it is exactly the answer that I desire even though it may be significantly different from my original request. I am reminded that sometimes God does calm the storm around me, but at other times He calms the storm within my own heart. I have found that it is the latter that is both more rewarding and brings me the greatest joy.

I am an impatient person and I most likely always will be. I still desire that God answer my prayers, whether positively or negatively, right away. But, I am learning that the not yet is not a bad place to be. Often it is in the midst of waiting for God to respond that He does His deepest and most long-lasting changes within my heart. I am learning to trust this process and as a result I am becoming a better person and a better reflection of my Lord in the world. Prayer will always be mysterious and the answers that God gives will always be difficult to completely come to terms with until that day that I see Him face to face. Until then I wait, impatiently, in the land of the not yet and do my best to allow Him to make me every day more and more in His image that those around me may come to know Him and enter into their own relationship of asking, receiving, and walking through the not yet and learning to know Him more.

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