When God Knocks Back

Have you been praying for something for so long, standing in faith, beseeching God to answer what burdens your heart?  Perhaps the words come in silent repetition, an utterance so profoundly simple that you barely even recognize that you are saying it.  

“Please God… Please.”   Somehow, you just trust that He knows what it is you need.

I have been here many times, and I still am.

We all know that we are to take our cares and petitions to God.  We are to seek Him; to knock at the door and know that it will be opened.   He will respond to our prayers.  He always does, even when we don’t yet see it.

Sometimes, we can experience such a profound shift, an answer to our circumstance for which there is no other explanation than to call it what it is — a miracle.  Miracles come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and degrees of manifestation.  You know it when it happens.  It is inspiring and lifts our faith to new and wondrous heights.

But what about the answers that come in God’s Time?  You know the ones - where you ask and you ask and you ask, but time rolls by and seemingly nothing has changed.

These can be discouraging, difficult seasons. 

In my own circumstance, I am seeing that God’s Time, though wearisome, is producing something in me that I could not anticipate.  It’s like knowing you need glasses, but not realizing until you get them how much clearer your vision is.  You can see past what you only imagined your perception allowed.

God’s Time is showing me things that I had not allowed myself to see before.  It’s sharpening my focus in areas that I had too easily glossed over.  It’s creating in me a new ability to withstand certain hardships that before I never thought possible.  It’s working out of me the propensity to blame another’s shortcomings for my problems, and realize that God wants better for me.  He’s in control.

As long as I stand knocking at the door, laying my burdens on the threshold of His will, I am keeping my expectations in-line with His outcome.  This is the place where patience and silence challenge me; it is the place of surrender.

I have come to recognize that here, waiting on God to answer, He is doing so by changing my heart, healing me bit by bit, working tiny little miracles into each day that confirm that I am on the right track.  

If I listen deeply in the silence that I mistake for Him not answering me as I would like, I can hear him knocking back.  “I’m here.  Be still, I’m here.” 

Proverbs 3:5 has gotten me through more moments than I could ever count.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

I don’t understand why God’s Time seemingly takes so long, but I do understand that what He is doing behind the scenes is for my good.  I don’t understand how I could not see before the things in my life that needed fixing, but He did.  I don’t understand all that God is doing to ready me for my new season, but He does.

Know that no matter how long you stand knocking, God can hear you.  He knows all that you cannot possibly understand.  He is working things in you and for you, so that when it finally opens, you will be made ready for what is to come.

On the other side of the door, God is knocking back to you. “I’ve got this.  Everything is going to be okay.”

Be still and know that He is God.