There are some prayer requests I’ve been asking of God for years. Obviously these requests are important to me since I continue to make them day after day, year after year. Even so, I admit there are days when I wonder why God is taking so long to fulfill those requests. After all, Jesus tells us in Matthew, “”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:8 NASB)
I feel as though my request are not selfish or unreasonable. I know God wants to give me what I ask; Jesus said as much as He continues in Matthew: “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:8-11 NASB)
Yet many of those requests have yet to be answered. I suppose I could question God and wonder why He would promise to give what I ask, yet continue to do just the opposite. But, throughout the Bible we can find instances where God did not immediately fulfill a request, yet when He did the fulfillment was greater than the person making the request could have ever imagined.
During the Christmas season we often read of one such incident. Zacharias and Elizabeth were no longer young when an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias while he was performing his priestly duties. It is reasonable to infer from the story that they had been praying for years that God would give them a child. And finally the time had come and an angel appeared to Zacharias and “said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN , and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.'” (Luke 1:13-17 NASB)
Their petition had been heard by God, and He was now ready to fulfill their request. The answer to their prayers was a son who would “be great in the sight of the Lord.” I’ve no doubt this went beyond what they could have thought or imagined. As they discovered, God’s timing was perfect. He had a perfect reason for waiting to give them the answer to their prayers.
Yes, Zacharias and Elizabeth were getting old, and we read that this caused Zacharias to initially doubt that his wife could handle a pregnancy and birth of a child. But God literally fulfilled a promise made in Isaiah: “Yet those who wait for the L ORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” (Isaiah 40:31 NASB) So when Jesus told us to ask, He meant it. Even if it meant to keep on asking.
It may seem like your petitions have outlasted their ability to provide the meaningfulness that caused you to begin asking in the first place. In other words, you may feel that so much is being lost while you are waiting for God to fulfill your request. But look at Zacharias and Elizabeth who could have lamented over the fact that they lost their youthful years when they could have better enjoyed raising their child. But God had a plan. In the end they were to “have joy and gladness” as the result of the birth of their son.
So, continue to ask and believe that God will fulfill your requests. Learn to wait on the Lord; what He has in store for you will be “far more [abundant] beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:20 NASB) Now that is exciting!! And worth the waiting!