- Apr 4, 2006
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I’ve been reading through a lot of the old Puritan writings on prayer recently, specifically the works of Thomas Goodwin, Christopher Love, David Clarkson and Richard Sibbes, and the depth of their understanding and instruction on prayer have been an immense blessing to say the least.
One particularly helpful thing they delved into was how to recognize God’s answers to our prayers. And sometimes because God may deny our requests in mercy, that in itself is an answer to prayer. And sometimes He merely delays the answer to keep us humble and dependent on Him and to also increase our desire after Him in prayer, to keep us fervent and importunate in our duty (as the woman of Canaan, the importunate widow and the friend seeking bread).
But because I suffer from an overly analytical mind, and because delays and denials can look an awful lot alike sometimes, how can we know the difference between the two? What are some key differences that may help us to ascertain when a prayer has been denied in mercy versus just delayed in mercy for the sake of our continuance in asking in faith?
One particularly helpful thing they delved into was how to recognize God’s answers to our prayers. And sometimes because God may deny our requests in mercy, that in itself is an answer to prayer. And sometimes He merely delays the answer to keep us humble and dependent on Him and to also increase our desire after Him in prayer, to keep us fervent and importunate in our duty (as the woman of Canaan, the importunate widow and the friend seeking bread).
But because I suffer from an overly analytical mind, and because delays and denials can look an awful lot alike sometimes, how can we know the difference between the two? What are some key differences that may help us to ascertain when a prayer has been denied in mercy versus just delayed in mercy for the sake of our continuance in asking in faith?