Praying More

Lately, I feel like my prayers go nowhere.  The silence and the "no" answers are deafening and disheartening.  From the most inconsequential to the monumental (at least in my world) my requests and pleas seem to stop at the ceiling and rise no further.  God are You there?  Are You listening?  Do You care?  The people I pray for, their circumstances seem to deteriorate the more I pray.  When I ask for bread I feel like I get a stone.  Is God mad at me?  Or is this supposed to encourage a growth spurt in my faith? Questions circle my heart, while answers remain hidden and elusive.

And this is the exact time I need to draw on the faith I claim to have.  Will I trust God when all is silent?  Will I believe when I don't see?  Don't hear?  Don't feel?  I have a hunch that the silence I sense is actually the God visit I need.   I really don't like this training!

Everyone wants to feel God around them.  Have His constant encouragement, see clearly His involvement in their everyday lives.  And He is all that. But there are too many examples in the Bible where God caused His children to wait for answers, wait for His timing.  Even a quick look through the Psalms shows us David waiting on God time and time again.  Hebrews 10:38  And my righteous ones will live by faith.  But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.  Encouraged and admonished.  God honors those who stay the course.  Or in some cases, like me, fall off the course and keep getting back on or sit down on the course, have a hissy fit and then get back up and keep walking!  (I've done both lately!  LOL)

This weekend, I ran my first (and probably my only) half marathon.  It was not an easy task.  Many times I was running with no one else around me.  I felt sometimes like I was the only one on the course.  And yet on the sidelines were those directing and encouraging.  "You can do it!"  "Keep going!"  "You're doing great!"  I believe this was God's example for me, and for those who are reading this that even when we feel alone, God is there, cheering us on!  Softly, sometimes almost inaudibly, but there all the same, on our side, running beside us.  The only way we can know this truth is by faith.

Silence is not always bad.  Sometimes it is the only thing that stretches us.  If we let it, it will cause our roots to sink down further into God's love.  Our roots sink and grab hold, while our arms and hearts reach up for the sunshine of His love.  We stretch, we grow.

Lord, I want to hate the silence.  I want to hate the "no" answers.  And I have.  I've been angry and frustrated and mistrusting.  Forgive me.  Cleanse me from a hardened heart.  Thank You for teaching me even when my prayers seem to meet dead air and heaven seems mute.  Forgive my unbelief.  Help my unbelief.  I want to trust more.  Trust Your kindness and Your love.  You've got this!  Thank You. 

Move past what you see and move into faith.

Luke 17:5  Show us how to increase our faith.