Prayer and Timing
Unlike ordering through catalogs, when submit our requests in prayer, God's delivery and His timing is in His perfect way.
“And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Samuel 3:19, KJV).
I love ordering things from clothes catalogs. The order forms, with the specific facts required, are like hard crossword puzzles—but with all the answers provided. You feel really grand, clever, and all that because you can fill them in!
The order is mailed and forgotten in the rush of more immediate things. Then bang, right in the middle of some activity totally unrelated to your catalog order, the parcel is delivered!
How like God. The specifics of my order are carefully tabulated and delivered in His time and with eternal efficiency. The answers are sent to prayers I prayed months, even years, ago—long after I have forgotten my requests. Sometimes it no longer really matters to me if the parcel even arrives! But my words are not allowed to fall to the ground. Angels catch them and register the demand. How good of God (see Rev. 8:3-4).
Sometimes, when the earthly clothes arrive, they don’t quite fit. But there is a difference with our heavenly requests. Those goods that finally arrive are perfect! I think of the time I prayed for my children to find Christian friends at school when they were very small. They went right through grade school and junior high without that support. One day when we were hosting a barbecue for dozens of their lovely Christian high school friends—I remembered—and I thanked Him!