"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19
When we pray, there will almost always be two things on our minds — the things we need and the things we want or desire.
I was taught as a young Christian to write down the things I prayed for and check them off as God answered them, while giving Him thanks and praise. Often there would be a good amount of time between when I prayed about something and when it was answered. I found myself only occasionally thanking God for answering my prayers as they were being answered.
One morning while in prayer with Father, He challenged me with a question. "How often do I answer prayer?" He asked.
"It depends on how long it may take to line everything up," I replied. I knew when we pray for certain things, it may take days, weeks, months, or even years to receive a full answer.
For example, you may ask God to help you get a promotion at your job. You have been faithful working unto the Lord. Then, God chooses to answer your prayer with that promotion. The process begins. It may be that the person in the position you desire must be promoted as well or your boss may have to open a new position. Maybe the thought of you must be placed on the mind and heart of the right person who will do the promoting. There are so many factors that may be involved just to have one prayer answered. However, when this prayer item is finally answered, we give God thanks. Sadly, we only thank God when the prayer is completed, when we should be thanking Him daily that our prayers are being answered.
But that was not the main point God wanted me to understand. Again, the question was, "How often do I answer prayer?" The answer is daily. The difference is between our needs and our desires. As we see in the example, our desire prayers may take longer to answer, but our prayer needs are being answered every day.
"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah." Psalm 68:19
We tend to focus on our wants and desires while taking for granted that God is daily meeting our needs. We focus on the promotion while forgetting to thank God for the job we currently have that is paying the bills. Or maybe we are focused on some type of illness or sickness when we forget to thank God in times when our health is good. It could be a ministry that we would like to see grow bigger while neglecting to thank God for the people He has already entrusted to us. There are the relationships we focus on while taking for granted the ones God daily blesses us with.
Yes, God answers prayers every day of our lives. Spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, financially, and so on. Once we fully comprehend this fact it changes our level of appreciation and expectancy. God, in His loving patience, helped me to see His hand working on my behalf every day in some way to bless me. I am learning to stop looking for only the big answered prayers and to daily appreciate the many prayers God answers.
I spoke with a good friend who knows a lot about mining for minerals. He informed me that before men had better technology, they could easily overlook one mineral while digging for another. In one situation, a company found gold in the large pile of material they had been throwing away. The gold in the tailings was more valuable than the mineral they were mining. And so it is with our needs verses our wants and desires.
God's question has truly changed my way of thinking when it comes to prayer. Not only can I rejoice that God is meeting my daily needs, but in doing so His presence is continually with me. Thank You, Lord!
I pray you will think about God's question as well. While being healed of a sickness is good, having great health every day is more valuable. Maybe a bigger house would be nice, but thank God we have a place we can call home today. Maybe we can't eat out at the finer restaurants, but thank God we have food on the table tonight. Maybe there are people we wish would love us, but thank God for the ones who do and that He loves us more than anyone ever could.
The list could go on of how we focus on our wants and desires while neglecting God is answering prayers daily. His presence is always with us and the more we acknowledge that He daily meets our needs, we also acknowledge His presence with us.
