July 2018

lowers being the branch in the
vine in Chapter 15. Jesus says
verses 5:8,
“I am the vine; you are the
branches. If you remain in me
and I in you, you will bear much
fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing. If you do not remain in
me, you are like a branch that is
thrown away and withers; such
branches are picked up, thrown
into the fi re and burned. If you
remain in me and my words remain
in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father’s glory, that
you bear much fruit, showing
yourselves to be my disciples.”
In light of this, these verses are
in relation to the fruit we bear and
how praying in relation to our
fruit will be answered. This passage
is not about what we want
other than producing fruit. But
this doesn’t diminish the fact that
sometimes it seems prayers are
not answered. We still face this
dilemma of our prayers to God
and what we receive in response
is not up to par with our wants
and desires of our requests.
As I’m penning this, I can’t help
but look back at my prayer
life and reflect. I pondered the
prayers that were answered and
the prayers that have not been
answered [yet]. What is the reason
for this? Honestly, I don’t
have the answer, but I can speculate
for those not having prayers
answered based on what the Bible
says.
When I was in the U.S. Army,
as an offi cer, I had to make decisions
and answer questions
about various things. I was told
once that when I didn’t make a
decision or didn’t provide an answer.
that not giving an answer
was an answer. Not getting an
answer is not necessarily not
being heard but sometimes no
answer is the answer.
Does this mean God is saying
yes or no? I don’t know, I’m not
God. Yet in my mind when I don’t
get an answer, when I get nothing
but silence, that is my answer.
This is a hard concept to think
about but to me, silence isn’t
good or bad, it’s just silence. In
His silence, I have to trust there
is a reason beyond my comprehension
of why there is no response.
I would rather have a
big NO though. I can understand
“no” but it is the unspoken that is
hard to deal with. I believe part
of this silence is God’s way of
teaching us patience and trust.
Patience is difficult for us. In
our modern world, we get most
things instantly. Texts, emails,
packages delivered in a few
days, fast food, etc. Our concept
of what patience means is about
as long as the tip of our nose. We
want things now, not later. If we
have to wait for something, we
usually don’t want it or don’t try
and go somewhere else for what
we want. This attitude seeps into
our relationship with God.
We pray and expect a response
right away. We want to know
now, not later. We pray in ways
that require an answer from
God quickly. We forget that God
works on His timeline, not ours.
What we want now, God may not
answer for months or years. His
silence is not bad, it’s just when
we pray in the moment we feel
we need a quick response. We
must have patience that when
He hears our prayers, He will
answer when the time is right for
us. When we pray for immediate
answers and hear silence, it’s
in our mind that if God doesn’t
say anything He either didn’t
hear us or doesn’t care. When it
seems like God is going to wait
to answer our prayers instead of
when we want Him too, we want
Him to tell us our prayers will be
answered in such or such a time
so we can plan ahead to be ready
to hear Him. Yet He doesn’t tell
us when He will answer prayers
and when we don’t hear anything
when we want to hear something,
we tend to get frustrated.
When this happens we pray and
pray about the same thing, thinking
the more we pray about the
same thing, the more likely our
prayers will be heard above the
noise of the crowd. We will then
be likely to give up on our hope
of our prayers being answered
and lose hope in God. Patience
is a virtue is a true statement.
If we trust God will answer our
prayers, we must also be patient
to wait on His answer. I learned
this lesson and since have become
trusting and patient in
waiting for God to answer.
A prayer of mine was answered
a little over four years after I
prayed and heard nothing but silence.
To make a long story short, I
was in the Army, seven years in.
The Holy Spirit, very loudly and
50 www.faithfilledfamily.com July 2018