Sunday, June 23, 2013

GOD TAKES TOO LONG TO ANSWER PRAYER.

(I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog. If so, forgive me.)
When I was a new and VERY young bride, my husband and I had a horrific, horrible... horrible argument.  So bad that I called my mother (a Godly woman if there ever was one) and asked her to intervene - as in "Tell him HE IS WRONG!"   My husband got on the phone - already knowing that there was NO WAY my mother was going to choose sides.  She NEVER got between us. But as we spoke, and knowing my mother, I could tell she was seeing my side of the story. (as in HE WAS WRONG!)  I cannot remember WHAT the big crisis was.. but my mother's response to it CHANGED THE WAY I DID BEING A WIFE.  

She said to my husband,  "You know, if (my name) was a praying woman, she would be talking to God about this.  He would be sending His conviction to you about what you did - and to her about the way she is reacting to it."  And.....that was that.  We had to settle it ourselves.  She wouldn't discuss it further.  Pray?  Pray?  I didn't WANT to pray. I wanted to hit my husband with a kitchen spatula. Pray?  He was WRONG.  I didn't need God to tell me that.  What was there to pray about??? MOM?????

I was not, at that time in my life, a praying woman.  I was NOT in the mood to have to wait for God to answer a prayer. I used to think "God takes too long to answer prayer."  I never considered that I was an impatient brat of a woman who thought she was smarter than God.  Nope. It was God's fault that prayer took so long.  I wanted change.  I wanted answers. And I wanted them NOW. But... like a spiritual knife... my mother's words hit my hard heart with the power of God's Truth...   And...through trial and error.. and over many decades I have discovered my mother's secret - and the secret of Godly women through the ages -

PRAYER CHANGES HUSBANDS

Well, yes, it also changes WIVES too... but.. God has a way of taking up the cause of a person ---- husbands and wives - who pour their whole hearts and put their WHOLE TRUST in Him...

The bottom line is that you can read every marriage blog on the Internet, study your Bible for every spare moment... but PRAYER.. honest, true, from-your-heart CALLING ON THE LORD is THE way God responds to people. 

Some wives.. through nagging and being angry - can cajole their husbands in to being a beaten down robot who does what she wants for a week, or a month or longer.  But who wants a man who is doing something just to keep his wench of a wife from having a tantrum? If you do.. then don't bother reading any further.

BUT - If you are a wife who wants real and lasting love between you and your husband.. who grieves over the way you have settled for a mediocre marriage -
then you have to know that REAL AND LASTING CHANGES have to come from within the heart.
ONLY GOD CAN CHANGE A HEART. ONLY.. GOD. 
And only through PRAYER.
Your prayer.

I know, I know, I'd rather read than pray.
I'd rather talk than pray.
I'd rather journal than pray.
But prayer is the power.
We read blogs... we write blogs.. we read books...we write books... we listen to podcasts... sermons.. songs... go to seminars... read more blogs... study more Scriptures... talk to more friends... visit more counselors.. talk to pastors.. .complain to girlfriends....and YET.. we are.. many of us.. we are wives who are... SAD... DISAPPOINTED.. DISCOURAGED... and powerless women of God.... who... simply never consider that God is waiting to answer prayer..
BUT.
we never pray..

God cannot answer an unprayed prayer.

We often forget that PRAYER is the key. So we never think about PRAYING. Is that a coincidence.. or a deception of the enemy of our souls?  The enemy of marriage?

So let me ask you..
Have you prayed?
REALLY prayed about your marriage?
Remember that the Bible says, "We must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who DILIGENTLY seek Him."

Don't make prayer such a complicated process.
Prayer is nothing more than a conversation with God.
A conversation is TWO sided.  He lets you speak. You get quiet long enough to let Him speak.  
POUR YOUR THOUGHTS OUT TO GOD.
Believe that He is listening.. because HE IS.

And for my other Mrs. Older's who read this.. Please.. if you will...Take the time..to leave your comments below to help other wives with your story of how when you prayed.. God answered.

Also.. thank you for signing up to receive this via email. (Top of page)
I am staggered by the the way God is sending readers. 

PRAY.
XO,
Mrs. Older

8 comments:

  1. Just yesterday I was saying to my husband (the pastor of a rather good sized church in the northeast) that if the husbands and wives in the troubled marraiges we counsel would just drop to their knees in humility before God he would come in and heal them. This morning I read this. You are correct. We have become a system of churches that neglect to tell our people that if they would pray God would hear them. Thank you for the simple truth you continue to try to get women to hear.

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    1. Thank you sweet woman for posting this. It makes my heart sing.

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  2. I don't know who you are. I wish I did. I would send you flowers. You make things so simple. I wish you were my pastor's wife.

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    1. I like flowers. I'll bet your pastor's wife does too. Send them to her instead. I used to be a pastor's wife. It's not easy.

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  3. Thank you. I am in almost constant conversation with God some days. Not as in hoping to be heard because of a multitude of words, but just because it is how I am. I needed the reminder to LISTEN as well. You are such a blessing to me.

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    1. Shauna,
      So nice to read your words. You are such a blessing to ME.
      XO

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  4. Thank you for this blog Mrs Older.

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