Because it isn’t if the process is painful. It will always be when, and that should change how we pray.

When we pray make me holy. Make my spouse holy. Make my children holy – then we must be willing to go through the pain of how God puts holy into us. But the hard part isn’t our pain, it’s watching those we love go through the painful process of God answering our prayers for His will be done in our family as it is in heaven.

Because for God’s will to be done, ours can’t be, and a human will in the process of dying is hard to watch.

Asking God to bring a prodigal to their senses.

Praying that those we love would walk free from fear and anxiety.

Asking God for more of His presence.

We know it isn’t a magic wand that brings the answers to our prayers. It is a powerful God and a good Father, who is committed to the process of forming Christ in us.

Which means unholy things get confronted.

Prodigals land at the end of themselves and the end of self is a painful place.

Fear and anxiety aren’t vanquished, they are faced, because trust is a choice we make in the face of something that feels more familiar.

The things we surround ourselves with must be removed, by us, to make room for more of His presence.

Wounds get opened so they can be cleansed so that the healing we prayed for can come.

Can deliverance and freedom come instantly by the hand of God? Absolutely.

But staying free is a process that involves our will and that process can be hard, because our flesh has to die in order for us to stay free, and man, that hurts.

I said all that to say this –

We pray for the outcome. God chooses the process. We cannot control it, and it will do no good to pray for God to skip the painful parts.

He loves us too much to say yes to that.

One last thing…

Not all answers to prayer are painful. God is so good, so gracious, and so merciful it’s ridiculous. But when we ask Him to do a work in us, or in the people we love, that makes us more like Jesus, you can bet something will have to die with the answer to that prayer.

A painful process is an indicator that God is doing something good. Keep praying!