You know I think I just realised why so many Christians’ prayers don’t get answered.

As a Christian, I can testify to firing up angry prayers to the sky, raging in fervent appeal while on almost bloodied knees with torn heart staining my merry self-righteous life, wondering “WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING ME LAWWWWD??!”

I know why I wasn’t always answered in hindsight…and it’s not because of the melodramatic prayers.

One thing I really like about God is His creativity. If you don’t notice that creativity in the diversity of people, plants and places the world plays house to, then think about the story of the plagues He graced the Egyptians with in the book of Exodus. I’m sorry but that story ALWAYS makes me laugh. You do realise that God could have killed all the Egyptians and let the Israelites go from the first instance, but He insisted on irritating the Israelites out of the Egypt. Can you imagine the irritation got to the point where the Egyptians, who swore to never release the Israelites, begged them to leave AND gave them gifts to hurry them on their way?! Madness. God is kind though; He really gave the Egyptians chance after chance to change their minds before they entered what Nigerians refer to as “One Chance!”

Anyways, so what I’m trying to say (in a longwinded way), is that God doesn’t do things the way we do AND He uses the most ordinary, random and often questionable things to work out His own strange plan on earth. So in thinking about this, I realised that a lot of times when we pray, our appeals usually require some form of human intervention to be carried out. For instance, if you need money for school fees, its far more likely that God is going to make someone, however random and far reaching, provide the resources to address that need you’ve made known to Him. It is (unfortunately) unlikely that God is going to arrive with heavenly garment gleaming and cherubim’d body guards preening, to drop some Naira notes on your school registrar’s desk, insisting she let you into school post-haste.

So realistically most times, for God’s will to be done and for your prayers to be answered, there must be some human input. Unfortunately, there’s no special ‘God’s Army’ holed up on an isolated island just waiting to be sent out to do God’s will and answer your prayers. Actually wait, there are angels! True, but Christians are actually supposed to be like earthly angels focused on making sure God’s will is done on earth; we ARE that ‘God’s Army’….only we’re living In an overpopulated land, not an isolated island. :s

Many times I feel a compulsion to do certain things; often weird things that in my right mind would certainly NEVER originate from me logical cynic that I am. Sometimes, this compulsion involves giving away something I deem precious, often my time or some material possession I am attached to. Other times it’s my personal chilling time, which I jealously guard. I know that this compulsion to go out of comfort zone and character, or give where it hurts is God’s idea…because He is the king of absurd ideas that I initially dislike.

Sometimes I follow the compulsion, many times I ignore the gentle prod in preference of the primrose path. But I started thinking recently that I must have been given so many opportunities to be an answer to someone’s prayer; to be the human input in God’s plan to help someone out of a sticky situation. And in thinking of that I wondered, how many people have ignored THEIR compulsion to be an answer to MY prayer? There is a weird reciprocity to the universe.

This why prayers don’t get answered.

Funny thing, I find that the less I ignore the compulsion or the tug in my spirit to do the unusual, the more I find things in my life falling into place…as though when I am busy putting out the fire in someone else’s home, someone is protecting my home from being burgled in my absence. If that makes sense.

And you know what’s funny, that absurd kindness doesn’t come naturally to me! Trust me, my sisters will tell you! My default position is NOT niceness, my mind is too sharp, my mouth too sarcastic, my soul too into self-preserve mode to automatically put others first. Choosing the kinder action or word comes from a period of conditioning myself to pick God’s desires over mine. It takes practice, but the more I do it, the more natural it becomes, until my default setting is ‘ALWAYS AVAILABLE’. I am still working on the niceness bit. Lol. True story, I realised I’d really reached a breakthrough level when my aunty gave me some money when I went for a visit, as Nigerian aunties are wont to do, and the first thing I thought was, “Who do I know that needs this money right now?”. I almost fainted! Trust me, I don’t mess with my monaaaay! But slowly, God is changing me.

I am living proof that if you’re willing to conform to God’s will, He is willing to transform your mind and mould your heart. You CAN be whoever you desire to be because with God, not only is change possible…change is likely.

Cray.