2005-10-15 - Answered Prayer: Not As Requested

How God Answers Prayer - Part 3

Previously, in this series, we learned two ways that God answers prayer are:

1. Literally and Immediately
2. He refuses to honor the petition. He says no.

Today we will learn that another way that God answers our prayers is:

3. By sending something other than requested.

   According to Luke's account of Jesus in the Garden, Luke 22:39-44:

   Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. ⁴⁰ On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." ⁴¹ He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴² "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." ⁴³ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

   Jesus requested that God take the cup from Him, and God didn't, because the cup of his sacrifice on the cross was God's purpose for him on Earth at this time.

   Instead of taking the cup from Him, God sent an angel to strengthen Jesus when he needed it most.

   In the same way, God has a purpose for us, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what our needs are, and what it will take for us to persevere. He will send things other than we request to build us up in Christ and preserve us for His purpose. He will walk us through the trials and tribulations in our lives. This will strengthen us and build in us the character of Christ.

   According to 2 Corinthians 12:7-12:

   To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ¹¹ I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the "super-apostles," even though I am nothing. ¹² The things that mark an apostle”signs, wonders and miracles”were done among you with great perseverance.

   As we saw previously with Paul's request for God to remove the thorn in his flesh, God said that His Grace was sufficient for Paul. You could say that God sent His grace for Paul instead of sending him the relief that Paul requested.

   So we find that God gives us the strength to carry on.

Series to be continued.

God Bless You, My Friends!
Rob

rob@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

I want my life to be for the glory of God