A prayer while you're still waiting for God to answer, by Betsy DeCruz, read by Liam

Arton, O Lord God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast

love with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant.

Nehemiah 1-5-6.

When you pray for something forever and still don't see an answer, you might start to wonder

if God really hears or cares.

How do you keep on praying when you're not even sure if it makes a difference?

Although most of us have heard that prayer develops our relationship with God, if you're

like me, you pray most when you're desperate for God to do something.

We want Him to heal our loved one, help our child, provide for our needs or show us the

way forward.

Of course God wants us to tell them about our needs.

However, if we make prayer about coming to God to get what we want, we might be setting

ourselves up for disappointment when He doesn't come through in the exact way we hope.

What if we have it all wrong about prayer?

Maybe we're missing the point and our mistaken expectations set us up for disappointment.

Nehemiah shows us how to pray in the midst of a difficult situation.

He is grieved over bad news.

Nehemiah 1 4 tells us He even sat down and wept.

Yet rather than focus on the problem, He starts His prayer by focusing on God.

Nehemiah calls God's greatness to mind.

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