When You Experience a Delay

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“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it. -- Isaiah 30:21

I recently heard that it’s estimated Jesus fulfilled over 300 Old Testament prophesies.

The chances of this happening are incomprehensible, an impossible statistic. Seriously, the math isn’t mathing! So, the idea that God cannot answer our prayers, to do the seemingly impossible, is futile. And I might add ignorant when you look around at nature. But we are ignorant sometimes, yes?

So, why then do our prayers go unanswered? Or, and what I’ve been pondering lately, why do we often sit in a delay to our answered prayer?

Many times, I have asked God (admittedly in frustration) why there hasn’t been a breakthrough over situations I’ve desperately prayed about. And I’ve gotten answers… ones I wasn’t ready to hear… that either me or a person in the situation I was praying about had stepped out of His Path, deviated from the plan if you will.

Whenever the word path or walkway come up, it reminds me of our anchor verse when I was a children’s pastor. Isaiah 30:21: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it." (NIV) Right before this passage, we read in Isaiah 30:19, “People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.”

Did you catch that? As soon as He hears, He will answer you. So, we can trust a resolution is on the way, for God does not fail or lie. So, then, if there’s a delay, a month, a year, 20 years, then we must check to see if we’re out of sync with His Path and get back on it.

Now, we can’t control others. We can pray and pray for them, but they must choose to listen to His voice and stay on His path. But for us, how can we attempt to stay on His walkway?

For starters, we can do what Jesus commanded that encompassed all of us. (All means all.) “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself (NIV).’” If we are adhering to this, it would certainly include prayer being a way we can discern God’s voice and stay on the correct path through intimate talks with God about our struggles, and also our prayers for others.

Secondly, meditate on the word “day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it." (Joshua 1:8, ESV)

Thirdly, think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

Are you experiencing a delay, an unanswered prayer? Check to see that You are on His path by following the commands above. And keep going. Breakthrough is on the other side of the delay.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Why do you think that our prayers sometimes go unanswered?

2. Why do you think we often sit in a delay to our answered prayer?

3. Are you experiencing a delay, an unanswered prayer? What should you do about it?