Preparing For What You’ve Prayed For.

Many of us spend a lot of time praying and believing God for a particular thing. We pray for it, we believe He can do it, and then we just wait for it to happen. But what if God delivered the blessing right now, would you be prepared? If the blessing dropped at your front door, would you be in the right place to receive it? Would He receive the glory, or would it simply be for your benefit only?

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Matthew 24:42

The Bible tells us that faith without works is dead. We know the first step to anything we are trusting and believing God for is faith. We must pray and talk to God about our desires, and then believe that he will give us those desires. But we don’t stop there. We must cultivate the ground to receive the blessing. There is work required in the wait to ensure that we are prepared to receive.

Most times to get ready for anything new, we must begin making changes and preparations. For example, if I ordered a new piece of furniture, I would begin reorganizing my current space. I would rearrange some things, throw out the old to make room for the new, and do some deep cleaning in advance of the delivery. Making provisions for the new requires me to take inventory of the present.

This realization really hit me when I noticed the season I am currently in. As I wait in expectancy for God to move, I need to get ready. No matter what space we find ourselves in, there is work to be done. The delay we experience is the perfect grounds for preparation, and it may be where God is watching to see if you are ready to receive! Our obedience to His word and confidence in His promises is what moves His heart. What kind of Father would give us a gift before we are ready to receive it? That’s a recipe for disaster.

The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. Genesis 2:15

Before any harvest, there is work to be done in the field. The groundwork must be done because the ground must be prepared. Before a farmer can expect to have crops, he must prepare the soil, plant and water the seeds, and then allow God to do his part. He doesn’t just make a wish and walk away, instead he gets to work. There is always something for us to do to not only get ready, but stay ready.

But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” John 5:17

Preparing for what we’ve prayed for includes preparing our hearts and our character. No matter what we are waiting on from God, He will always highlight areas that we need to work on. Starting with preparing our hearts, this one is huge.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

When we prepare our hearts, we are ridding it of anything that is not of God. Our hearts are central to who we are and from it flows how we look at life (Proverbs 4:23). In my last blog post, I talked about God leading us to alone time with him which includes time to prepare our hearts. He prepares our hearts by aligning ours with His. Psalm 37 does tell us that God will give us the desires of our hearts, but it requires us to delight in the Lord. To delight in something means it gives extreme pleasure and satisfaction. He wants to prepare our hearts to find the ultimate satisfaction in him. When our delight is in him, then the things we desire, will begin to morph into the exact things he has for us. We seek to please him instead of what only makes us happy. We begin to take on his values and attitude. That requires us to intentionality learn what pleases our Heavenly Father. When my heart is being transformed, I am allowing God to download all of him into me. By preparing our heart before the blessing, God is making sure our heart is pure and sensitive to God’s spirit.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 1 John 3:21-22

Secondly, God wants to work on our character. As God prepares our character, it normally disrupts our comfort. Difficulty is what allows us to grow.  We can’t take our old selves with us to where God is leading us, so he must develop our character.

Put on your new nature created to be like God- truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:24

Think of the story of the Israelites. God had made a promise to deliver them from Pharoah and to take them into the Promised Land. But while they were waiting on this promise to be delivered, they had to endure some plagues. They complained and were hesitant that God would deliver. But God needed to prepare them for what was on the other side. He knew that with every elevation that he provided, more challenges would come. During this time, they were able to see the Lord rescue them in the midst of chaos. God wanted to build their trust and obedience. God is always aware of our faith level at any given time. When the Israelites escaped Pharoah and were on their way to the Promised Land, God sent them on a detour.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. Exodus 13:17-18

 Once they got to the Red Sea, He then again put their faith and obedience to work. There was another character test in place to see if they would be obedient. He gave Moses instructions, and it was up to them to do what he said to escape the Egyptians. Instead of complaining, they had to trust God’s word that he would fulfill his promise.  Time and time again, the Lord tested the hearts and the character of the Israelites before they reached the promised Land. He knew what they would experience once they got there, so he needed to prepare them ahead of time.

Before God can allow us to experience the next season, we must show that we 100% trust his plan for our lives and will be obedient no matter what is in front of us. We cannot want the blessing more than we want the one who blesses. Preparing for what we prayed for can look different for each of us but there is always work to be done. How can you be preparing now for what’s to come? What is God showing you right now. We have all heard stories where people talk about how they look back over their lives and see how all things worked together to get them to where they landed.

Is God calling you to cultivate relationships while waiting for a new position or job? Practice a certain skill while you wait for a new opportunity? Learn how to budget if while waiting for a financial breakthrough? Our maybe teach you to live out the fruit of the spirit as you prepare for what’s next. Whatever it is, trust God is always working behind the scenes. We can do our part and trust that God will come through with the rest.

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