What Delayed Answers to Prayers Can Teach Us About Salvation

Hey friend, 

To my new friends in Thailand, China, and the Philippines. Hi and welcome! I’m so glad you’re here!

I’ve had such a heavy heart lately, and so I’ve been staying away from writing. I know, I know, it’s counterintuitive. Writing is so cathartic! 

Maybe it’s the dream that I had that’s been bugging me. In my dream, I saw a line of people—or, as they might say in other countries, a queue—waiting for entry, and when I realized what they were waiting for, I panicked. I started begging and pleading with them, and I was trying to save them! I took their arms and tried to pull them out of line, because what they were waiting to enter was literally hell. They were waiting at the door of hell. 

But that’s the part. I can’t do it for them. Our only role is to choose to accept Jesus. And I cannot make that choice for them. We either choose to spend an eternity with him or without him. If this weighs heavily on me, I can’t imagine how much it burdens him. Isn’t this why he delays? Because he doesn’t desire that any should perish? 

Peter reminds us of this: 

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9, NKJV). 

He is not slow in keeping his promise. But if you ask me, I want to say, but why does it feel that way?! Do you think this will ever impact us? Meaning, what if the delayed answers to our prayers are because someone else’s salvation is being worked out? Honestly, I’ve never stopped to consider it, and now I feel awfully selfish. “But, how long, Lord!” I cry and whine. And now? It gives me serious pause. In verse 15, Peter says, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” If this is true, how far is the Lord willing to go? 

What if his patience for one causes restlessness for another? And what if he is completely okay with it? Me, okay, I’m talking about me here. I can get restless. And I mean really restless! But that’s partly his fault! And I am saying that light-heartedly. But I live by an agenda. I love to check off the box, so to speak, when something is done. “On my plate, off my plate!” And isn’t he the same? Don’t our prayer requests miraculously appear on his to-do list each day? So, when he looks at his agenda for the day, he sees that he needs to fulfill our request. Worst case scenario, he sees it late in the day and says to himself, “Oh, shoot, that came in late, I’ll do that first thing tomorrow morning!”

No? It doesn’t work like that? And I guess, if I stay with that analogy—and if Ecclesiastes is truly correct and there really are seasons for everything—then there could be a specific date & time he has calendared to fulfill that request. If he plans to fulfill it all. And for all we know, it’s set to 15 years out! With only a 15-minute notification set for before the appointed time. Never to be seen again until just before it’s scheduled to complete. But now, suddenly, I’m okay with that. I have peace now. Because honestly, I don’t want anyone to go to hell. And maybe it’s not that serious. And maybe, his taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R to answer some of my prayers doesn’t have anything to do with someone else’s salvation. But what if it DOES! 

And that right there is enough to stop me dead in my tracks. What if it does? Now, I can’t unhear Peter. “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” And maybe, just maybe, that will be an inconvenience to us at times. Are you okay with that? Because suddenly I am. And evidently, I needed this because I haven’t even read my planned reading for today. Oh, the irony… 

Suddenly patient, 

iK