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Faithfulness in Prayer!!!

Many times I hear Christians complain that God hasn't answered their prayers. Is He listening to me? Maybe I am not praying correctly? I can't understand what is wrong. Such complaining I believe is saddening. The Bible tells us that God answers all prayers. The answer: Yes, no, or wait!

"Now there was one, Anna...a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day." Luke 2:36-37.

Faithfulness to God through prayer is important. Our faithfulness allows God to reveal greater insight to us than to the less faithful. If you have been following this week, a key note that keeps coming up is spending time with God in prayer. I'm talking about "real" time. Give God the opportunity to speak back to you! Did you know that faithfulness brings opportunities to us that are not given to the unfaithful? I believe that God takes pleasure in answering prayers that come from a faithful heart.

Let's look at Anna for a moment. She had been a widow for many years. In her day, a widow had little status in society and was virtually helpless on her own. But Anna spent her time, day and night, fasting and praying in the temple. And what was she praying for? The Bible tells us she yearned to see the Messiah. If you study the Scriptures, you would notice that God chose few people to encounter the Savior when He was born, revealing His Son only to those whose hearts were faithful and pure. And Anna was one of those few. Jesus would later say to His followers, "Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear...it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given." (Matthew 13:16, 11). I think the "them" Jesus was referring to was the unfaithful.

Anna continued faithfully in prayer until her prayer was answered. The answer to her prayers did not come immediately, but she kept on praying. In fact, the answer came near the end of her life, but God honored her faithfulness. She got to see the Savior! God's redemptive plan to send the Messiah included answering the prayers of a humble widow. What do we think of that?

Faithful praying may mean a lifetime of waiting to receive an answer. I think God is looking for intercessors who are willing to continue to pray and to believe until they see God's answer. Remember, just because you think God hasn't answered you yet, doesn't mean He hasn't heard you, or isn't going to answer: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of Him." 1 John 5:14-15.

May God richly bless you today!! H Trent!

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