Good question. This is something worth taking a deep reflection on and if you are not the very religious type, I would invite you to tighten your seat belt as you take this ride with me. Let me use typical examples to drive home my point; I am single, female and I need to get married for whatever reason (social pressure, peer jealousy, independence from home, procreation, lonely syndrome, economic issues, please you are welcome to fill in the blank). You have prayed to God about it, fasted (dry, wet, only fruits, etc), confessed, you have been patient and it appears as if the only thing that comes your way is your birthday which you now despise with all alacrity. What can I do? Am I doing something wrong? Why me? If you have been sensible enough to ask yourself these questions, you are definitely at the right place.
- 1. The Big Picture: Most of the time your desires are granted by God himself who knows your next step is to fall on your knees and petition Him to fulfill that desire. He could go about granting these desires in so many ways especially through social pressure because men are moved by what they see. If you are unemployed and your best friend just gets that titillating job, you are definitely pressured to get one. The whole world starts coming down, you would approach God with all determination, suddenly your faith in God increases, your prayers have more in-depth meaning, and you are ready to do anything to get that job (I wonder why God has to use your friend to get you more focused). Well, He does because of the bigger picture he has for you; when you come to God to give you a child, God is looking for a vessel to bring up is Prophet; when you ask God for that job, God is looking for a training ground to make you one of His able-ambassadors; when you ask God for a wife, God is looking for a platform to train His daughter.
You really need to understand this when you are approaching God or your prayers are just futile. Let’s take a peek into Mrs. Hannah Elkanah’s life of the bible; she got pressured because her husband’s wife – Peninah – was making fun of her; she received larger portions of everything because she had children. After praying without result, Hannah understood that God had a bigger picture in mind; she said; “God fulfill my desire and I would in turn channel the desire to your kingdom purpose”. She immediately births her dreams.
- Sowing and Reaping: You can petition God from now till thy Kingdom come, if you don’t sow, you won’t reap. This is a principle in which God himself declared after destroying the earth with storm leaving Noah and his clan; He said as long as there is earth, seedtime and harvest shall not seize which could be interpreted as saying; I won’t just do anything instinctively, I would go through a procedure called sowing and reaping. If you come to God for a desire, you have to ask God for the seed to that desire because God would not grant you the desire; He would grant you the seed to the desire. My dear since the seed doesn’t have any resemblance to the fruits; you would definitely miss it if you don’t ask God to open your eyes of understanding.
A lady comes to God and says; “Oh my God, I have been praying to you for the past 5 years for a future partner and I am 32 years old now and you have not brought him my way” and God says; “I answered you the very day you asked me”. The lady says; “How and when?” God says; “good question, you remember Joe” and the lady says; “It can’t be Joe, Joe was ugly, didn’t know how to eat and didn’t dress well and God, you know he is now married”. God says; “Have you seen Joe lately? Joe was meant for you but you did not want him so I gave him to another.” As the prayer ensued, she gets interrupted by her friend who walked into the room; “Guess who I saw today?” Her friend says.
Who?” she reluctantly asks wanting to get back to her prayers. “Joe, the dirty scoundrel, the guy has cleaned up, come and see his Hummer jeep, his dressing was immaculate; the suit must have been Oscar De La Renta; his shoes were just too cool; he was looking so fine, I did not recognize him until he tapped me and introduced himself; his wife must be very lucky” her friend continued: “I could not wait to tell you because the transformation was just too much, you would have married him when he asked for your hand and remember how we laughed at the idea then”.
No matter what you ask for, it comes in seed form; some people recognize it while others don’t. It may be that low paying job, it may be a dirty looking car, it may be that house in Ajegunle, it may require you to pray along with someone in need and this leads me to number 3.
- Burden Bearers: Opportunities are abound everywhere; it only takes those who understand the seed principle that take advantage of it. One thing that you should note is that God does not owe any man so whatever you sow in God, you would definitely reap. This is the easiest way to transit issues you are facing or going to face in future. If you hear your friend is going through a particular issue, it is time for you to take that particular issue up to God and bear the burden with your friend, you would be surprise that that particular issue would never exist in your life. If you hear your friend is looking for a child, it’s the opportunity you need to bear that burden so that particular burden would never exist in your life. God would never forget your labor of love.
This happened to me during my NYSC days when I heard a dear friend of mine with good grades did not have anything doing for more than a year. I decided to take this upon myself to pray for her without letting her know. My fiancée (now my wife) and I took it upon us to constantly pray for her and constantly encourage her until she landed a lucrative job. As you can imagine, I never really looked for a job after NYSC, I had a job. Bear the burden of someone today and you may not need to pray for that impending issue.
- Forgiveness: I would like to reiterate that nothing happens on earth except through sowing and reaping and it is exactly what you sow that you reap. If you sow niceness, you would reap niceness, if you sow friendship, you would reap friendship and not any other thing (well, this is for those who expect economical fruition without sowing economical seed). Forgiveness is one of the prerequisite needed for prayers to be answered because God needs to forgive your sin before He could answer your prayer. But before he forgives you, you must sow forgiveness. God would then orchestrate circumstances on earth to cause you to forgive someone who hurt you in order for you to receive forgiveness. This is why you must learn to forgive easily so that you could be forgiven then your prayers would be answered.
Two stories come easily to mind on how God orchestrated circumstances in order for people to sow forgiveness then reap such; Abraham and Job. Abraham lied to Abimelech, that his wife was his sister so Abimelech took Sarah into his court but God intervened before Abimelech could commit a sin. God wanted to fulfill the petition of Abraham asking for a child so He closed up all the womb of the household of Abimelech. God knowing Abraham would be angry concerning what Abimelech might have done to his wife created a circumstance where Abraham had the powers to forgive Abimelech through prayers. If Abraham was angry and did not forgive Abimemelech, Sarah’s womb may not have been opened today but thank God, he prayed for the household and God opened up the womb of Sarah.
This same thing happened to Job; in order for God to turn his captivity around, he had to pray for his friend (You may read all the account in Job 44:10).
- According to God’s Will: If you have a desire and you place it before God. God has a way of getting your desires met. Every desire you have can be met by God without exception but must be according to his law of “love your neighbor according to yourself”. God is willing to grant all your desires even if it is not part of your assignment in life; if you have a desire to get a regular white-collar job even if you are predestined to be a Pastor, God would grant the desire first before calling you as a pastor as long as getting the job does not affect your loving your neighbor as yourself. Typical examples can be found in the bible when Jesus granted the desires of Peter the Fisherman to catch fish before calling him to his ministry.
So when you hear according to God’s will, it does not mean according to your predestined function but according to God’s law. You can’t say I need a promotion in office and you go about back biting your colleagues to get to that position; this is not the way to get promoted according to God’s will. To get that position through God’s will, you have to collaborate with your colleagues, even if another person obtains the position, you have to work with the person, giving your loyalty as you would give to God and God would surely promote you in due season.
God is in the business of answering prayers, these five points may not be exhaustive but they are strong pointers to why some prayers are not answered. If you need to know more, you need to call on God because He would show you great and mighty things you know not.
