Wait, He will lift you up

God laid this blog on my heart several weeks ago and I am just now getting around to writing it. The first week of January our church had a week of prayer and fasting where we met corporately each night and also had our own times of prayer at our homes. The focus was putting all of our needs in the hands of Jesus and believing in faith we would see those prayers answered this year. We had slips of paper we could write prayer requests on and then a box we could put the slips of paper in. At the end of the week we burned the box to show symbolically that the needs were out of our hands and we were placing our trust in God. I put lots of prayer needs in the box for salvation, healings, financial miracles and revival not just for myself but for friends and family as well. I have been participating in prayer and fasting for several years now and can tell you of several prayers that have been answered for me and others I know. But, what about the prayers that don't seem to get answered right away? What about the ones I prayed about five years ago that I am still praying for? The key to unanswered prayer is to keep praying while you are waiting for the answer. So now its the almost the end of January and not all of the prayer requests have been answered so I am waiting for them to be answered. The problem is that too many of us don't do anything while were waiting. According to Webster's Dictionary wait means to remain in readiness or expectation. Look at the passage in Isaiah 40:28-31:
Isa 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Isa 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isa 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:29 says the Lord gives strength to those who are weak. Are you weak from spending days, weeks, months and years praying for and still not seeing the answer. Friend the Lord said He would be our strength. The Lord said those that wait(expectantly) on the Lord shall renew their strength and they shall rise up with wings as eagles. Over Christmas break, Mark and I went with his dad and his niece and nephew out to Meramec Springs and we were just driving around hoping to see an eagle that had been spotted there before. When we got to the park we looked around and saw several deer then we saw a man looking up in a tree and as I looked up there was an eagle. Eagles are such majestic birds as they sit perched tall and confident in the tree. We drove through more of the park and found another eagle up in a tree. Mark is our conservation guy telling us all he knew about eagles and how they sit up in the tree so they can see further and can spot food then swoop down for the kill. As I thought about the eagle he could see his supper better from the tree than from the ground. The same is true for us. When we are praying on the ground we can only see the need or earthly situation when we really need to see the answer. God wants to raise up and increase our faith so we no longer just see the need but also see the answer. We must learn to wait with expectation on the Lord as He gives strength and lifts us up by faith to see the answer to our prayer.