Wait at the wharf

“Many a ship passes in the night,

touching at our wharf with the precious freight

which we have been praying for,

but we are not there to receive it.

Many a dove comes to our window from the

weltering waste of waters;

but we are too immersed in other things to notice its light tap.

We pray, but we do not wait;

we ask, but we do not expect to receive;

we knock, but we are gone before the door is opened.”

F.B.Meyer

James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

How many times are we guilty of praying a specific prayer, then walking away and forgetting all about it? We don't stay at the foot of the cross, holding out our hands expectantly, waiting for God to grant the request with his abundance. Instead, we get discouraged, we doubt God's goodness, his provision, his protection. We go our way and while we're gone, the answer comes, but as the poem says, “we are not there to receive it.”

 Often, we pray, but don't wait. We ask, but don't expect anything to come of it. We knock, then turn away, not expecting an answer. We have little faith.

 Matthew 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

 The passage in James tells us what we are likened to when we waver in our faith. When we doubt God's ability, we're like a wave of the sea. Now, waves of the sea are beautiful, don’t get me wrong, I love to stand in the shallows, feeling the wet sand between my toes as the water laps at my feet. In, out. In, out. In, out.

But when we pray without faith, we're likened to a wave. The wind drives it. It ebbs and flows. What is the wind in your life that drives you? Is it a wind of doubt? Is it a wind of fear? Is it a wind of anxiety? Is it a wind of peer pressure? What is the wind that drives your prayers and causes your faith to waver?

God says, “let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord”. If we're wavering in our faith and our prayers are half-hearted, and we pray without really expecting anything, God tells us plainly that we won't receive anything.

 Hudson Taylor once said,

 “Ask great things of God

Attempt great things for God

Expect great things from God”

 We don’t have to be afraid to ask big things of God and expect answers to those big things.

 God is waiting and longing to give us the desires of our hearts. He is able to go above and beyond our tiny requests and overflow our lives with blessings.

 Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us

 Then, why is it that we are not waiting at the wharf, at the window, at the door?

 Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

 So where does 'leaving it at the foot of the cross' come in? Some say we should pray for the thing once, leave it at the foot of the cross, and then have faith that God will answer. They tell us that we don’t need to keep praying repeatedly about it.

Well, I don’t pretend to have all the answers and I'm still on a steep learning curve when it comes to praying effectively, but I do know that God wants us to bring our problems to Him and not fret or worry over the outcome, and He also expects us to pray with a heart of faith, expectantly, hopefully and without doubt. He tells us in scripture to pray without ceasing. He wants us to bring our requests to Him continually and pray for the same thing over and over.

 I personally feel that you should keep bringing your request to God until he gives you the peace that it is answered or will be answered or that you are praying amiss and need to change your prayer.

 It is not wrong to pray for something consistently until God opens the floodgates of Heaven and grants our desires and we see the mighty hand of God work and we give Him all the glory.

 How many souls have been saved because a faithful Christian wouldn't give up on praying for that loved one to come to Christ? They weren't content to pray once, and walk away, not waiting for the answer. No, they were ready and waiting at the wharf, continually begging God and interceding on someone else's behalf until God answered.

 I don't want to be so busy in life, that I miss those little answers to prayer. We often ask a small request of God, then don't even see the answer arrive because we're so busy doing other things. We’re not waiting at the wharf. The blessing comes and goes by unnoticed. And because it is unnoticed, it is also not given thanks for.

 I want to be at the door waiting. I don’t want to miss a single answer! And I don’t want to miss an opportunity to give God praise for his exceeding abundant blessings, mercy and love!