(February 17, 2025) Dr Richard Winter, having shared great points on prayer last month, shares more…

I heard a story about a young girl who wrote a prayer letter to a missionary. She was trying to lend her support to him. But, evidently, she’d been told not to request a response because the missionaries were very busy and her letter began— ‘Dear Mr Missionary, we’re praying for you. But we’re not expecting an answer.’

What she wrote summarises the prayer life of most Christians! We do a lot of praying… but we don’t expect an answer.

We need  to look at four attitudes we must have when praying to our God— all based on the little word ‘willing.’ Small word maybe, but huge in meaning! Dictionaries explain that it’s an active word indicating that one is happy to do something if it’s needed eg ‘A willing person does their work energetically and enthusiastally.’ Such attitude and action is regarded as approved… it’s a settled way of thinking about something.

Let’s look then at the willingness that you must have when praying to our God. You must be willing to let Him answer according to His own—

1. Time
This means according to God’s schedule, His timetable. In other words— whenever God thinks best. And at times that can us wondering why doesn’t God answer? The fact is that God doesn’t always answer everything immediately!

I’ll share personally here… sometimes I have a hard time believing God’s going to answer my prayers and I’m impatient if it’s a tough time! But… I believe that if God sent a special messenger angel to meet me face-to-face and say, ‘Richard, I’m here to tell you, God has answered your prayer’ I think I’d be convinced…  that I’d would be pretty certain it was going to happen.

Bible handy? Read Luke 1:5-23, the incident about a priest called Zechariah (Zacharias in some versions). He was an amazing guy… Luke tells us that he and his wife Elizabeth, booth of Aaronic lineage, ‘were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old’ (v6-7).

Now Zechariah obviously loved his wife and had prayed that they could have a child (v13) but nothing had happened and now they were too old to have a child (v18).

But… note God’s timing—

One day when Zechariah was on duty and had gone into the temple to burn incense while assembled worshipers were praying outside, suddenly an angel… a messenger… appeared! The old man is instantly startled and really frightened, especially when he hears, ‘Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son’ (v11-13GNB).

Although scared, Zechariah manages to mutter ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years’ (v18). Sounds diplomatic, doesn’t it… but this ultimate skeptic was probably thinking ‘We gave up on that prayer a long time ago.’ 

Why didn’t he believe it? Well… think about parenthood. The hardest concept for kids to learn is this— understanding the difference between ‘no’ and ‘not yet.’ Kids will say, ‘Daddy (or Mummy), can I have a cookie?’ Not yet, you say and they might go into a fit like they’re never ever going to get on!

• Immature people don’t understand the difference between ‘no’ and ‘not yet.
• Kiddies always have to have it immediately. But a mature person can wait!
• The mark of maturity in the Christian life is this: How long can you wait?

Someone once said to me, ‘I tried prayer for two weeks and nothing happened so I’ve given up: I’ve lost my faith in prayer.’ 

• Are you like that?
• If so, you haven’t lost your faith. You’ve lost your patience!
• Actually, the Christian spells faith P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E!

Know that God is more interested in making you mature than He is about making life easy. After you’ve learned the right attitude, then God’s free to work on the problem. Instead of saying, ‘Lord, change this situation!’ you start by saying ‘Lord, change me—  in this situation, this job problem.’ Once you’re in line, then God can go ahead and answer.

Example: Do you have a financial difficulty? Maybe what God’s saying is ‘I want you to learn the right attitude about money first and then I can help you out.’ The fact of the matter is this: God is never late, His timing is perfect. We may think He’s late but He’s never late. God’s delays are not God’s denials. ‘Not yet’ does not mean ‘No.’

Reality: What do you do then if your prayer hasn’t been answered immediately?
(i) You keep praying until God reveals to you that it’s not His will. Or…
(ii) You get the assurance that you’re going to get it. You believe it in advance of seeing it.
(iii) You get the answer. Then you can stop praying. (Obviously!).

So in order to receive an answer from God, we must be willing to let Him answer in His time.

2.  Way 
Not only whenever God thinks best but however He thinks best, God’s ways are always better and usually bigger when He answers.

Isaiah 55:8-9 confirms this: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”’ 

Understand this— the reason God often delays an answer to prayer is so He can answer in His own way, a way that is bigger than you thought originally.

What would have happened in this Lukian story if God would have answered Zechariah and Elizabeth’s request for a baby immediately? What would they have gotten? A little Jewish baby.

Oh yes they would have loved that child of course. But God delayed their request for a number of years and then when He answered He gave them John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus. John was the last Old Testament times prophet, the only one to see the prophecies about Jesus fulfilled; he was the forerunner of the Messiah, proclaiming ‘Here He is!’ and pointing to Jesus.

Because God delayed Zechariah and Elizabeth’s request, He didn’t just give them ‘any baby’… He gave them ‘a John the Baptist baby.’ 

Our problem in praying is often two-fold: We ask too little and we want answers too quick instead of letting God work in His own time and way to do something big. Think of the greatest thing in your imagination— God can do bigger than your imagination. That’s amazing… as Paul pointed out Ephesians 3:20Mge: ‘God can do anything, you know— far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!’ 

• We’ve prayed and asked God for 200 members in our church. But we don’t want them overnight, we want them a little at a time as the church grows!

If God had answered some of my prayers exactly as I’d asked them, I would have been living in a mess! Letting God answer in His own time, you let God answer in His own way.

3. Power
We must stop trying to help out God! Don’t ask for ‘whatever’ in faith and then try to work it out on your own! Let God answer in His own power. It’s called a miracle.

There’s an important truth in this story about Zechariah and Elizabeth. The fact is this: God often waits until the situation is humanly impossible before He answers.

When did God give them a baby? After all, they were beyond childbearing years, saying ‘We’re too old, physically unable to have kids.’ But God answered in power in His time! Why? Because when He answers an impossible situation, who gets all the credit, all the glory? God does! The point is that God waited until it was humanly impossible, hopeless, then He answered their prayer miraculously.

Warning about prayer: If you start praying about something, particularly a problem, don’t be surprised if it gets worse before it gets better. Let’s say you’re praying about a financial problem and all of a sudden it gets worse, or you’re praying for somebody to get well, and they get sicker. Why? Because sometimes God will let things get to the point of hopelessness in order that He might gain the most glory out of it.

Let God answer in His power! His plan is to let the problem get out of our control, our ability, and when you’re about ready to give up hope— that’s His opportunity to work a miracle by His ability, His power.

Do you want to have an answer from God? Be willing to let God answer in His own—

• Time.
• Way.
• Power.

4. Purpose
There’s another aspect here— we must be willing to let God answer for His own purpose! That is… not only whenever, however and most powerfully He wants to answer, but also for whatever reason He chooses!

Why does God chose to answer prayer? What are His reasons? Is God our heavenly genie— we pray and He does what you want? No! The entire Bible summarises why God answers prayer in two statements: 
(i) For our growth, gain and blessing.
(ii) For His glory, His exaltation in answering prayer!

Back to Zechariah and Elizabeth… why did God answer their prayer and grant them a son? Because He had a purpose for that little boy. He knew that his parents would raise John welland that, Spirit-filled, he would be the forerunner proclaiming the Messiah.

I think the greatest example of what I’m trying to say is that we can see  all these three attitudes— and God’s purpose— expressed in the life of Paul. So let’s start with Paul’s attitude to God by reading the letter he wrote passionately to all the Christians in Rome, then capital of the Roman Empire.

Here’s an extraction from the section subheaded Longing to go to Rome : ‘God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve … One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. For I long to visit you … to encourage you in your faith’(Romans 1:9,10,12NLT).

‘Long’ is epipotheo, to dote on (dream, crave intensely). I quote a verse 15 portion from the Message Bible to stress Paul’s dream, longing, to go to Rome to be meet and minister to the Roman Christians— ‘I can’t wait to get to you in Rome, preaching this wonderful, good news of God.’

Did God ever answer Paul’s prayer? Oh yes… but in His own time, way, power and purpose! Read through Acts and discover that it was a long time before Paul got to Rome! And He suffered much even before arriving there— badly treated, inquisitions, shipwrecked in winter, bitten by a snake. Oh, he did finally get to Rome… but as a prisoner and is kept in house arrest! That wasn’t exactly his plan.

Paul had thought the best way to make that impact was to preach in Rome. Sometimes God denies our original request to give us what is really on His heart… He wanted Paul to write and touch the world, not just Rome: And under house arrest, Paul had a lot of time on his hands.

And what did Paul do? He did touch the world! He wrote a bunch of letters to different Christians all over the Mediterranean and these became an integral part of what would called the New Testament!

Summarising

• When you pray and the request is not right, God says, ‘No.’
• When you pray and you’re not right, God says, ‘Grow.’
• When you pray and the timing isn’t right, God says, ‘Slow.’
• When everything’s in place, God says, ‘Go.’ He gives you the green light and you’re able to move!

What about your prayer life now then? Are you willing to let God answer your prayer in His time (whenever it may be), His way (anyway He sees fit) in whatever He thinks best and in His power, and in His purpose?

It may mean that things don’t go as planned for a while; they may get worse so God can do a miracle when the situation becomes humanly impossible. Are you willing to let God answer your prayers for His purpose? (Your growth and His glory).

Now here’s a final word about prayer— ‘You desire but do not have … You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures’ (James 4:2-3).

Do remember that ‘little’ word above— willing!
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Dr Richard Winter pastors The Connection Church, Huntington Beach, California. Link: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com Link: LISTEN TO THE RIGHT VOICE— GOD’S! | Connecting with You!
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