Waiting for God's Time

In this fast past world that we live in, Americans have been raised to expect instant gratification.  We live in a society that has built everything on what is fast, convenient, bigger, and better.  Everything that we do from cooking meals, serving meals, even carrying on conversations is hurried.  We as Christians are not untouched by this either.  Unless you are Amish, or living under a rock, you know what I am talking about.
 Does this idea of instant gratification affect our prayer lives as well?   We want everything we do to be on our own time table.  We want God to grant everything now, and when that doesn't happen we get discouraged or start thinking God isn't listening.  This leads us into doing things that are not necessarily God's will.  If you believe that God is all knowing and perfect in every way then shouldn't we trust Him to know when it is time to answer our prayers?

In my church we have a weekly prayer meeting that is usually started with a brief reminder of what and why we are doing it.  This week our prayer leader brought up the question,"What is the Lord's prayer really saying to us?"  If you don't already know it, I will share it with you:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen

The part that he wanted us to pay particular attention to was the "Thy will be done in earth" the question being, "what does this mean?"  It does not say "my will" it says "thy will"meaning "His" will (what He wants) this also means, "when He wants!"

Here are a few verses from the bible I thought I'd share with you:

Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 37:7-9 Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm. For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.

Romans 8:24-25 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

**** all of these were taken from the NLT