Pastor Elohor Ogbaje of The Fountain of Life Church (TFOLC) has explained how Christians should act while waiting for God to answer their prayers.
She spoke at the first service of Sunday, October 30, 2022, at the TFOLC headquarters in Ilupeju, Lagos State, where she reminded the congregation to stay joyful and patient while they wait.
According to her, delayed answers to prayers could sometimes be frustrating and tiring. But, despite that, she maintained that God will surely answer, as seen in Matthew 7:7–11.
Pastor Elohor told the congregation that as much as they all desired a “Yes and even more” as an answer to their prayers, which God can do, His other answers could be a “No” or even a “Not yet”.
“Whatever His choice of answer is, we also need to trust God enough to do it in His perfect time,” she said.
The clergywoman posited, quoting from Abigail Folds’s article, “When God delays His answers to our prayers, there’s always a reason; and the primary reason for every delay is to create an opportunity for God to be glorified and for us to be edified.”
To buttress the point, she recalled the story of Lazarus’ sickness, death, and resurrection recorded in John 11. The clergywoman explained that Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, might have felt abandoned and betrayed because Jesus didn’t come to help them when their brother was sick and needed healing. This was especially true when he died. But this didn’t change the fact that Jesus still loved Lazarus, the Pastor added.
She noted that nothing stopped Jesus from going to heal Lazarus while he was sick, but He had bigger plans.
“He planned to do something even more spectacular – a miracle of resurrection, which is much more significant than a miracle of healing,” the cleric told the worshippers.
Pastor Elohor gave other reasons why God may delay in answering prayers. Some of these other reasons could be:
– For believers to attain maturity through the testing of their faith. (Matthew 15:22–28; James 1:2–4).
– For believers to humble themselves (rid themselves of pride) and totally depend on God (Luke 18:2-8).
– God is helping the believer learn how to overcome spiritual warfare (Daniel 10:12-14).
She further shared how the believer’s attitude should be during their waiting period. These attitudes, according to her, should be:
- Not giving up on trusting and believing God’s promises.
- Persistence in prayer.
- Not giving up on reading God’s word, as it is an essential component of their weapon of warfare.
- Not giving up on walking in obedience (1 John 3:22).
- Not giving up in praising God is an indication of the believer’s complete trust and confidence in God (Acts 16:25-26).
- Not giving up on declaring God’s promises, as speaking them would bring them to manifestation (Proverbs 18:21).
Citing Numbers 23:19, the clergywoman also reminded the worshippers that God is not a man and that He would lie or repent. She also quoted read from 2 Peter 3:8, which says man’s time isn’t the same as God’s.
“God always sees the bigger picture. He knows the end from the beginning because He is the beginning and the end,” she said
The woman of God admonished believers to seek God more for relationship purposes than personal needs.
“Our prayers should not be only about what we desire but also about whom we desire. As we push to know more about God, we begin to get more peace and speedy answers to our prayers,” she added.
