Trust In God’s Perfect Timing | Inspirational & Motivational Video

we often ask god for things in prayer and more times than not we have to wait for an answer is god cruel and making us wait for answers to prayer joni erickson tada has an incredible testimony regarding waiting on the lord by looking at her life we can see what god is doing by having her wait on answered prayers in 1967 at the age of 17 joni erickson tada decided to go swimming she took a dive into the chesapeake bay she did not realize how shallow the water was and fractured her fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae this ended up paralyzing her from the shoulders down at first it was extremely tough for her she would often pray for healing but nothing happened she doubted that god was real and struggled with wanting to live however many years later she would reflect on her time in her chair and she said i hope in some way i can bring my wheelchair to heaven with my new glorified body i will stand up on resurrected legs i will be next to the lord jesus i will feel the nail prince in his hands i will say thank you jesus he will know that i mean it because he will recognize me from the inner sanctum of sharing in the fellowship of his suffering he will see that i am one that shared in his suffering so he will see my gratitude will not be hollow and i will say lord jesus do you see that wheelchair over there well you were right when you put me in it it was a lot of trouble but the weaker i was in that thing the harder i leaned on you the harder i leaned on you the stronger i discovered you to be i don't think i would have ever known the glory of your grace if it was not for the weakness of that wheelchair so thank you lord jesus for that and now if you like you can send that wheelchair off to hell there is a season between when a prayer is prayed and offered to god and when the answer is manifested we call that period of time waiting on the lord this is a place where joni found herself while waiting on the lord to do anything specifically answering a prayer is challenging god is working in the waiting as we wait on him we learn how to lean on and trust god the first thing about waiting on the lord to answer prayer is to admit that it can be very hard christian cultured has romanticized waiting on the lord as if it is a beautiful process while the end result is beautiful because god changes us in the process the waiting can be agonizing waiting on god to heal our bodies when they are sick or waiting on god to fix a broken marriage is not easy even joni eriksen tada admitted that at the beginning of the trial when she lost her ability to move below the shoulders down she felt extremely depressed and had doubts about god even though waiting on god to answer prayer is tough god is walking with us through it isaiah 40 31 says but they who wait for the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint we respond by running to the lord to give us strength while waiting for him to answer our prayer we run to him with more prayer we also seek him out in the word we don't give up simply because god has not answered we push harder into him while god loves and cares for us what he is more interested in than just answering our prayer is changing us in the process consider this if god answered your every prayer how would you learn to trust him if he answered your prayers as soon as you prayed then your prayer life would never grow your prayer would never develop because waiting in prayer develops your character it humbles you it trains you to have tenacious faith i believe the reason why the lord makes us wait in prayer is because he knows that what we need most is to be changed into the image of jesus waiting on the lord to answer our prayers causes us to rely on god in her testimony joni erickson tara said it was a lot of trouble but the weaker i was in that thing the harder i leaned on you the harder i leaned on you the stronger i discovered you to be i don't think i would have ever known the glory of your grace if it was not for the weakness of that wheelchair while she hated the wheelchair she leaned on god as she waited she had to re-learn how to do almost every task we take for granted such as eating communicating and even going to the bathroom she even relearned how to paint by putting a toothbrush in her mouth the whole time she was praying for healing when the healing did not come it helped her trust in god through the weakness the trial you're going through god is using to help you trust him more so what prayers are you waiting on god to answer i cannot promise you that god will answer that prayer in the way you want unfortunately for joni she has yet to receive the healing that she prayed for at 72 years old she is still in a wheelchair however i can promise that god works in your life as you wait since joni's accident she would go on to write over 40 books using a voice to text machine become a recording artist and become a well-known christian evangelist even more than that her relationship with the lord has grown tremendously due to her prayer life and reading of the word god does not want you to freeze and wait for an answer to prayer but continue to seek him romans 12 verse 12 says rejoice in hope be patient in tribulation be constant in prayer we have hope that god can answer our prayers we can have the joy of the lord as our strength even as we are waiting for our prayers to be answered and oftentimes for some of us it takes tribulation to cause us to pray with intensity now it's through this repeated process of prayer and waiting that the lord works to make us trust him more pray more seek him more and lean on god more than ever before who is god to you [Music] how do you see the lord [Music] what's his role in your life or rather where have you placed him in your heart does he occupy your whole heart or does he have a fraction of your heart i wonder in your mind does the lord occupy a significant amount of time in your thoughts or does he struggle just to get you to think about him for more than five minutes in the day who is god to you i encourage you to see the lord for who he truly is god is nothing to play with he is all-powerful and omnipotent meaning that he is unlimited in his power and in his authority god is omnipresent and that means that he's in all places at all times he's a sovereign god the great i am so whatever we desire god is the i am of that if it's protection god says i am your protection should you need to be rescued god says i am your rescue you see god is the owner of cattle on a thousand hills heaven and earth are his matthew 1 verse 23 says behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name emmanuel he is immanuel meaning that god is with us [Music] you