Find the Answer

I found the answer, I learned to pray, with faith to guide me, I found the way.- “I Found the Answer” by Johnny Lange

One of my favorite Christian writers would have to be Andrew Murray.  He wrote on many subjects in the realm of Christianity, especially prayer.  “I pray, expecting an answer,” Murray wrote.  The quote always seems to stick with me, especially when I find myself questioning or doubting whether or not God hears my prayers.

Without a doubt, God hears our prayers.  However, God has some answers for our prayers that we may not expect or want to readily accept.  Yes, God answers prayers, but God’s people have to learn to accept the answer.  Yet, we first have to find the answer.

Finding the answer requires us to act.  It doesn’t just land in our lap, falling from heaven like fresh manna in the wilderness.  No, we have to find the answer through prayer as the hymn tells us.  We have to seek the Lord, imploring Him as we approach His throne of grace with petitions and supplications humbly and earnestly.

In order to find the answer, we have to:

• Look at What God Does: God has a will that will override any request that we have to offer Him.  His will emerges in the very things that He does.  He creates.  He supplies.  He strengthens.  He blesses.  Look at what He does to see how He will answer.  He will not  go outside of His will just to satisfy your desires.
• Listen to What God Says: God’s Word gives you insight into what God has said.  He reveals His own nature in His Word.  Read God’s Word and come to an understanding of what God has said.  Come to know God through His Word.  Learn about Him and learn what to expect from Him, so that you can be assured and confirmed through His answers to you.
• Leave All in God’s Hands: God is perfect.  He is sovereign.  He does what He wishes to do without having to answer to any other authority.  He is God Almighty.  Know that and be okay with it.  God is in charge, so it will be all right.  Just trust it all to God and you’ll be sure to be okay with His answer, even if it doesn’t match up with what you wanted from God.

 

The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer. — R.A. Torrey