Are we praying in expectancy? Have your prayers been answered yet we failed to receive the answer

Sometimes we get caught up in praying and waiting that we forget to expect God to move. The reasons why we forget to expect God to move is because:

1. we have a lack of expectation due to past experiences. We inherently think that because God didn't answer us before, so we think, he's not going to answer us this time. That's just not true. Our past experiences or failures do not determine or dictate God's present or future course of action.

Many of the most difficult things that hinder our forward movement in life, are not the things that lay ahead of us, but those things that are behind us that distract us from what is happening in our lives now. We must expect got to answer our prayers and be on the look out for its manifestation in our lives, regardless of what happened yesterday. Hebrews 11:6 says that he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

2. We have religious-ized prayer down to just something we have to do and an activity in saying we are a Christian. We lose sight of the fact that we are not calling on some mere human to answer our prayers, but the one and only omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God who is also our Father in heaven, hears all, sees all, and can do all. We fail to think that we are important to Him. We fail to see that he has ears and eyes for us no matter what the predicament.

If what we seek and believe Him for lines up with his Word then our situation has to line up with that truth. The situation is ever changing but the Word is not. When we decide to believe the Word over the situation then we will receive the manifestation of our prayers. The ones we pray for in expectancy of course. Prayer is not some religious activity but relational communication with God, one on one, just you and Him.

3. We feel that we are undeserving of an answer. We have feelings of in inadequacy or reprehension. We feel that we have not toiled, labored, or suffered enough to have earned an answer from God. There is something we did not do or we have not upheld our end of the bargain and therefore God will not answer me. I am undeserving of this response so I will not ask, I will not expect an answer, I will not seek. I will wait until I have gotten it all together before I go to him in prayer for what it is I am really truly seeking.

Matthew 7:11 says that If you, then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! We are not slaves. We are his children, his daughters. He loves us and enjoys giving and providing for us. Just as children do wrong, their parents punish them, yet they never stop taking care of them and providing for them, so does God for us. It's okay to ask, seek, knock, and expect. He's there willing, able, and waiting.

And if you look around and see with your spiritual eyes God has already answered many of your prayers, you just haven't opened the door and received it.

~Pastor James C Matthews~
Dunamis Life Ministries
Dallas, TX
Author of:
"Saved but Stuck: 30 Days to Personal Revival"
"I'll Come When I Get Myself Together"
"My Situation is Not My Destination- Only Preparation"