Have you ever ordered something online? That seems like a crazy question these days. Amazon.com is nearly 25 years old now, and e-commerce has become second nature to most of our generation. With the prominence of smart phones, mobile ordering has even made its way into the fast food industry. When I want to stop at Chick-Fil-A, McDonalds, or Subway, I head for the app first to make ordering faster and easier. The perks of getting discounts isn’t bad either.
Alongside the popularity of ordering goods online has been shipment tracking with UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service. I recently sold a few things on eBay. I was just as interested in making sure the packages I shipped were delivered as I am when I’m waiting for something to come to me. We all know the package will arrive, but checking in on the progress has become a part of the process.
I wonder, is that the way we tend to approach prayer? Assuming that we trust God’s faithfulness, there shouldn’t be a need to keep checking in on where the answer is. But we aren’t wired that way. That’s ok. When we don’t see an answer, we pray again. We persevere through whatever it is that’s going on because we trust His faithfulness.
When we pray through something, it reflects just how much we trust God. If we didn’t believe God would heal the pain, restore the relationship, provide the job, or draw that person into a relationship with Him, we wouldn’t keep praying. We’d give up and move on. When we trust God, we continue to pray with expectancy because we know He is faithful.
Prompt Delivery
Sometimes the answer to prayer comes while we are still praying. Daniel experienced this when Gabriel came to him while he was still in prayer. “As soon as you began to pray, a word went out…”
While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed…
Daniel 9:20-23 (NIV)
Stuck In Transit
But sometimes we don’t see the answer right away. The very next account in Daniel 10 says that Daniel was praying for three weeks before the the next answer came. The prayer was answered immediately, but the answer got stuck in transit.
…Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Daniel 10:12-13 (NIV)
Even though Daniel did not receive the answer right away, he continued to fast and pray for three weeks! It was like he was checking on the tracking every day. In the waiting, he kept praying.
Even in the waiting, keep praying. Pray with expectancy because our God is faithful.