I have had many \u201copportunities\u201d to pray for personal needs as well as the needs of others.\u00a0 What a personal triumph I felt, when the prayers were answered \u2013 maybe not in the way I suspected, but God\u2019s way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes those prayers aren\u2019t immediate. They may go on for years. But it is not my responsibility to tell God when and how to answer the prayers. My responsibility is to pray and believe. God\u2019s timing is perfect. And His timing may look like this after we\u2019ve prayed, \u201cNot right now, I have a plan; or, I have something better in mind.\u201d He is God and His ways are higher than our ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answers to our prayers may take a minute, a week, month or even years. If we trust in our Sovereign God, and His perfect timing, then our answers will come at His appointed time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even with our good prayer intentions and hopes for a quick answer, we just might have to keep praying and believing and waiting. We wouldn\u2019t like it if someone came up to us and said: \u201cYou\u2019re not even halfway to the Lord answering your prayer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in the same light, I wonder about the woman with the issue of blood in the Bible, Luke 8:43-48. For over 12 years she suffered. I have often wondered about the sixth year of this woman\u2019s terrible suffering. I wonder what she would have thought had she known she was only halfway to healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I think of the day before she was to meet Jesus. I imagine what it would have been like for someone to go to this woman and say, \u201cTomorrow. Tomorrow is the day God will answer your prayer.\u201d She was completely unaware that there was only one day left until she received an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe today you\u2019re only halfway there. Maybe there are only six months left. Maybe your answer will come tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever God\u2019s timing may be, with her unshakeable faith bursting in her soul, I imagine the hemorrhaging woman telling anyone who\u2019s ever hoped and prayed for years and years, \u201cIt could be tomorrow. Do not give up. Do not ever give up on God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, to you and me, I say: \u201cMaybe you\u2019re halfway there.\u00a0 Or, maybe, it\u2019s tomorrow!\u00a0 Never give up on God!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saint Augustine wrote: \u201cPatience is the companion of wisdom.\u201d Let\u2019s pray for both today!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have had many \u201copportunities\u201d to pray for personal needs as well as the needs of others.\u00a0 What a personal triumph I felt, when the prayers were answered \u2013 maybe not in the way I suspected, but God\u2019s way.\u00a0 Sometimes those prayers aren\u2019t immediate. They may go on for years. But it is not my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24767],"tags":[3794,24763,3068,24764,9287,19042,23589,1493,24765],"class_list":["post-16776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-never-give-up","tag-halfway","tag-halfway-there","tag-never-give-up","tag-pray-and-believe","tag-prayers-answered","tag-sovereign-god","tag-unshakeable-faith","tag-wisdom","tag-woman-with-issue-of-blood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16782,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776\/revisions\/16782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}