Praying with Grandma

By Carin LeRoy –

The story is told of two little boys who were praying with their Grandma one night before bed. The older boy prayed first about his day and all the things he had done. Then the younger brother started to pray in a loud voice.

“God,” he said, “I really need a bike, some new toys….”

He continued praying through his list of all the things he wanted. When he finished, his older brother said, “Why did you pray so loudly? God isn’t deaf.”

“Yea,” he said, “but Grandma is.”

This little boy had already decided how he thought his prayer should be answered, and by whom.  How many times do we do the same thing? We pray, but rather than wait on God’s answer and timing, we try to implement our own answers. Rather than trusting God, we seek out answers by other means.

One example of this in the Bible is Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 16. God promised that He would give them an heir, yet for years God did not fulfill that promise. Instead, Sarah decides to give Abraham her servant-girl to bear his child. Rather than refuse, Abraham agrees, and Hagar becomes pregnant. Strife then develops with Sarah, and years of anger, pain and resentment result. Instead of waiting on God’s timing for His promised child, they created their own answer. Thousands of years later, we still see tension between the descendents of Ishmael and Isaac.

In 1 Samuel, we read the story of Hannah, who also was barren. Fervently she prayed for God to give her a child. She waited for God’s answer and eventually gave birth to a baby. When he was weaned, she dedicated him to the Lord. He served with the high priest Eli, became a prophet and judge, anointing the first two kings of ancient Israel. He became a great man of God and leader of his nation.

Waiting on God’s answer for your prayers is worth the wait.

PRAYER: Lord, give me patience to wait for answers to my prayers. Keep me mindful that You know what is best and that Your timing is always perfect.

QUOTE: “God teaches us that an answer to prayer is conditional upon the amount of faith that goes into the petition. To test this, He delays the answer. The superficial pray-er sinks into silence when the answer is delayed. But the man of prayer hangs on and on. The Lord recognizes and honors his faith and gives him a rich, abundant answer to his faith-evidencing, persistent prayer.” E.M. Bounds