My dear soul, I can almost see you at the telephone again, can't I? Another voice on the other end, another person who does not seem to know what the last one promised, and all the while the wires and cables are tangled somewhere in that newly renovated building, and your dear mother sits without her little window on the world, that cable television that cheers her days. And you are worn thin with it, worn with the explaining and the waiting and the hoping that the next call will be the last. Two months is a long time to be caught in such a thicket, and I do not wonder that you have cried out for an astonishing acceleration of the resolution.
But let me take your hand and draw you back just a step, away from the noise of it all, and let us look at the matter together in the light of the throne of grace. You have prayed, and you are still praying. That is the best part of the story, you know. Do you think your heavenly Father has been confused by the disarray of that company? Do you imagine He has misplaced your file or forgotten what He promised? Oh, no. When men are least organized, He is most perfectly ordering all things. When the wires are crossed below, the lines are clear above. Not one of your sighs has failed to reach Him.
I want you to think of this trial as a love letter in a black-edged envelope. The outward appearance is all vexation, but the message within is from Him. He is teaching you something about waiting that you could never learn if every bill were low and every cable instantly connected. "Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you." Do you see it? His delay is not His neglect; it is His wisdom making the blessing richer when it comes. The longer the gold is in the fire, the purer it emerges. So it is with prayers that take time. I have known the Lord to keep His people at His door for many months, not because He was deaf, but because He meant to give them more than they had sense enough to ask for at the first.
And now listen, for I would tell you a wonder. There is a kind of prayer that gets an answer while the words are still on your lips. At the very beginning of your supplications, the Lord dispatches the mercy, though your eyes have not yet seen it. Elijah heard the sound of abundance of rain before the first cloud appeared. Faith has quick ears, you know. It hears the footsteps of the coming blessing long before the senses can catch the sight of it. Could you dare to believe that even now, while the situation still looks snarled, the answer is already on its way? That the Lord has stirred someone’s heart at that company, or opened a way through those unavailable cables, or is arranging a bill lower than you dared to hope? Oh, let your faith go out to meet the mercy before it arrives!
What I would have you do, dear heart, is this: turn every single care into a prayer. You say the next bill may be larger, and the delays mount up, very well, each new worry is fresh raw material for supplication. Baptize every anxious thought into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. When the next stranger calls from the company, say in your soul, "Lord, Thou hast taken the measure of this man’s heart. Order his words to my good." When you look at your mother and wish she could watch her programs, let that ache become a quiet, "Father, Thou lovest her more than I do. Comfort her while we wait." This is the holy alchemy that turns the lead of care into the gold of prayer.
And do you not see that your very praying for "even better" than you desire is the Spirit’s own prompting? That is the mark of a child who knows the generosity of the Father. Did not our Lord give wine at the wedding, not just any wine, but the best, and that after the guests were already full? He loves to exceed our paltry expectations. So let your requests be made known with thanksgiving mixed in, thanksgiving for the low price you were promised, for the cables that will yet carry signal, for the two months that will somehow be compensated. Thank Him ahead of the sight of it, and you will find the peace that passes understanding standing sentry over your fluttering heart.
I would have you meditate on Him for a little, even this very evening. Not on the bills or the renovations or the uncoordinated staff, but on Him. A quiet quarter of an hour with your mind fixed on His faithfulness. There, as you sit beside your mother perhaps, you will find that sweetness which the Psalmist spoke of: "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." And in that sweetness you will recover your perspective. The whole affair will shrink to its proper size, not a great mountain, but a little hill over which your Father will lift you as easily as a father carries a tired child.
Now let us commend the whole tangled knot into those hands that manage galaxies without a single collision.
O Lord, who orders the circuits of the stars and knows the number of hairs on every head, look upon this dear soul and upon this mother who waits in her chair. Untangle what man has snarled, accelerate what has dragged, and let such order and peace descend upon these negotiations that they will know it was Thy doing. And in Thy great mercy, cause the cost to be even less than they have asked, a small token of Thy lavish love, that their mouths may be filled with testimony and praise. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
