A Delayed Answer?

God permitted St. Augustine to fall deeper and deeper into sin even though his mother Monica was faithfully praying for him. She could not have known during those long days of waiting that God would be able to grant her much more in the end than if He had answered her when she first began praying.

Answers to our prayers are sometimes not delayed; they are simply unseen. I recall a time, though, when God allowed me to glimpse His precise answer. “Help her to begin seeking You,” I had been praying for a friend.

Some days after I had begun praying this, she told me on the phone, “You know, I’ve had this strong desire to search for God.”

“Blessed is the man who is not staggered by God’s delay, or silence, or apparent refusal, but is strong in faith,” wrote Andrew Murray.

I thank You, Father, that Your delays are always filled with purpose.