I think there are some of us who believe that if we pray hard enough, and long enough, our prayers will be answered. When our lives don't move in the direction we prayed for, we are confused and doubtful. We don't realize that God truly is in charge, and He really does know better than we do, and He will determine how He answers our prayers, not us. I think the key to happiness is to value the answers to our prayers, and believe that what is happening in our lives is just as it should be. There are lessons and personalities that need work. It just may be that if a prayer request was met, our lives would miss out on some strengthening hardships on our horizon, and we would continue in ways that are not beneficial to our spirituality.
One might pray to God for their home to be finished being built. Staying with in laws with three little kids is frying your nerves. Your home is finished, your prayers answered, and the first month stares you in the face with a mortgage, utilities, car, insurance, food, and on and on. You are overwhelmed and depressed, and yet, you prayed for it. Maybe if you had let God conduct the show, things would have gone smoother, and you would have had more time to save some money. Do you value the answer to your prayers, or are you on to your next request? Did you thank God, or did you forget that He answered your prayers, and instead, complain about having not enough money to pay the bills?
Did you have your eye on someone you thought you'd hit it off with, and as you got to know them, you prayed the relationship would grow deeper? Deeper it did, until the engagement, and wedding, and home, and two kids, a dog, a barbecue and 2 cars in the garage. For some reason, things weren't what they should have been, and the relationship came to an end. You can't blame God, He answered your prayers. Did you value His answer, or make choices on your own? Or did you simply make a mistake in your choice of prayers? I think that's one of the hardest things we human beings have to do, make choices. Sometimes it can be confusing to know if we're on the right track, or getting ready for a collision.
This is one of the best questions I've adopted to help me in my decision making process, "is it for the good of all involved?" Of course, we can't always please everyone, but is our decision based on what will be in the best benefit of the majority, and not just ourselves? Are we praying for the church to be built so all can pray and have service, or because you want to get dressed up while you play the organ every Sunday? Do you pray you'll get pregnant so you'll have another beautiful Blessing to love, or do you think your fourth will lock you in from having to work for a long time? And do you even know these thoughts are behind the prayers?
Has asking God for every little thing we think of, become so commonplace that we don't even hear ourselves praying? "Dear God, please let them have the pork chops on sale still when I get to the A&P." Now, I know God sees all and hears all, but does He really need to grant a wish for pork chops? I think we can handle that one on own. And if they don't, can you value the answer? Maybe your husband would have choked on a bone, and died, and God instead, made sure those pork chops weren't available. That's finding value in the answer. We can't pray and expect God to answer our every cry for what we think we want. We may want a certain kind of car and pray for it to be ours for years.
The answer never comes, but we are also never aware that we would have driven too fast in that car and been killed. Divine intervention. Some prayers just aren't in our best interest, or that of others, so they are not granted. What we need to remember, is that God loves us enough to not want to see us hurt. He decides what is right and what is wrong for us. And if we believe this, we will attach value to our answers, and not curses to our Lord.
We don't need to know any or all of the reasons why God answers our prayers the way He does, we simply need to trust in Him enough to know He is doing what is best for us. Might not be the same scenario we were thinking about, but then, who are we to compare to God? We may never know while on this Earth why some things happened the way they did. We just have Faith that they happened in a way that changed us from one way of being to a better one. Sometimes, drastic measures were called for. That's the stubbornness in people, not God's wishes.
When we take the value out of the answers, we are growing in a positive fashion. We usually get calmer, and more open minded, more focused, organized, proud, and we feel more energy. When we can go through a situation that was horrific and draining, and still have Faith, and love for God and His wisdom, and figuring out what that wisdom was, then that is taking the value out of His answers. This allows us more peace of mind, body, and soul. We can be freer with our feelings, and our happiness. We can be living more towards a purpose. We can be who God hoped we would be.
