With May 1 being the National Day of prayer, we wanted to emphasize the importance of prayer. This issue has several tools to help you in prayer life. First, we want to encourage you to go back and pray through the FRUITFUL prayer that went with our Forty Days of Faith emphasis. Second, you will find a new prayer plan, called REBEL with a Cause. Third, you will also find the following article very positive and helpful with your prayer life. At times, we all get discouraged because we feel our prayers go unanswered. This article, with great faith, declares that one of the reasons our prayers seem to go unanswered is that we need to Wait!

    If you have wondered why your prayer has not been answered yet, "Wait" may be God's specific answer for you.

    You have been so certain that your prayer was in the will of God. God Himself has been leading you. He has kept His hand on your life. He has blessed you. But you have one lingering question which remains:

Why is my prayer still unanswered?

    Habakkuk asked such a question of God. The Lord answered: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

    "Wait!" God says to you. "Wait!" because God knows best and does best. Here He gives you four reason why you can wait and rejoice.

• Wait because God has appointed His time. God plans fit His actions perfectly. He not only has perfect knowledge of all present circumstances, but He also foresees all that is in the future. God never acts before the best times. He never acts too late. God has a glorious and perfect strategy. He answers prayer when it will bring the greatest good to you and the greatest glory to Him. He knows when His actions will be exactly appropriate. His love has set His time. "Wait!" because God's time is coming.
  
  
• Wait because the answer to your prayer is hastening. God is sovereign over all the circumstances of your life. He has been preparing you for the answer to your prayer. He has also been preparing other lives and other circumstances for this very thing. He is making all things work to your good (Romans 8:28). His preparation is already well advanced. His holy angels are assisting in the preparation and are ministering to your good. The unseen prayers of other believers join their prayers with yours as Christ intercedes and the Holy Spirit brings all these prayers before the Father.
  
  
• Wait because God will be true. God cannot lie. The things He has placed upon your heart He works through you to fulfill. All else may change, but God's purpose is unchangeable. His love for you will never change. His knowledge of your situations will always be complete. His power will never be less than almighty. God's Word will stand forever; His promise to you can never, never fail. Center your prayer in His Word and His will and wait. Wait, because God will do exactly as he promised.
  
  
• Wait because God will not delay His answer. The only delays are those necessary to allow you time for better preparation of your own heart and life, or to allow for all the circumstances to fit together for His great glory and your own great good. God never waits without a wonderful purpose. There are no fatal delays in God's working—there are only opportunities for God to work His greatest miraculous deeds.