290 How to Pray in Faith and Release Control to God’s Timing
Episode Summary: Have you ever prayed fervently for something for years, or even decades and began to doubt that God would answer your prayers? My guest on today’s episode is Bunny Yekzaman who prayed for over 20 years for her Muslim husband to receive God’s gift of salvation. Her journey took a powerful turn when she learned to pray in faith and release control to God’s timing. Thought it was a painful time in her life, Bunny shares how God redeemed that pain, bringing beautiful sacred scars in place of her painful wounds. Quotables from the episode: Sometimes we create wounds ourselves and we don’t even realize we are doing it. I was raised to not marry an unbeliever. I was told “don’t do this” or “don’t do that” but there was really no education as to why. But there are important principles in God’s word about why we shouldn’t be unequally yoked—it’s an element of protection that God puts around us if we will just obey his word. Sometimes we don’t really mean to disobey Him, but sometimes we just really don’t understand that that protection is coming from God. I knew not to marry an unbeliever, but I didn’t understand why. Was that really from God, or was that just another rule to follow? When I got into college, I met a man who was totally on the other side of the world from me. He was raised Muslim, raised in Iran, came here to go to school, denounced his beliefs, accepted the communist teaching and was teaching that in an undergraduate class at the college I attended. When they told me to stay away from him, it just made me want to run toward him. When I realized that I was a believer and he was an unbeliever, I began to think that maybe this was supposed to be my goal: to change this man so I spent 8 years trying to change him. We knew each other for eight months and then got married. Nobody said it would work, and it almost didn’t because I did step into a relationship unequally yoked. We think love is going to cure everything, but there is not true love where there isn’t a relationship with Christ. So maybe I had this deep abiding love for Jesus and for my husband, but my husband couldn’t understand that because he didn’t know the love of Christ. I went for years, trying to prove to him who Christ was and that he needed to know Jesus. I raised our children in the church, and it became a real battle because he began to believe that he was in competition with God. I realized that I had stepped outside of God’s will when I married him. I prayed and prayed for his salvation, and I learned how to love my husband with the love of Christ and not expect anything in return. He was a great husband and a great father in all other aspects, but it angered him that the children and I were praying for him and that I could have this confidence that when I died, I would go to heaven. In the Muslim faith there was an evidence of works in everything they did, so even though he denounced his faith, he couldn’t understand how the gift of eternal life was based on God’s grace. It took about 20 years of marriage before I really started seeing change. My children were on a mission trip, and I was at home, on my knees again praying for God to save my husband when I sensed a gentle voice in my spirit saying, “Bunny, don’t ask me again.” The Bible talks about being persistent in prayer, so I didn’t understand what God meant. There are three reasons why we often continue to plead with God to answer our prayers: 1) impatience, 2) wanting to be in control, and 3) not believing God for his answer. God was showing me that I was asking him for my husband’s salvation, but I wasn’t asking in faith—I was asking in doubt. We can have confidence when we pray. There is no shred of doubt that when we ask God according to his will, it will be done. But that means we have to know what his will is. If I’m praying for someone’s salvation, that’s God’s will. And if I believe that’s God’s will, and it is, then I can have a confident assurance that God is going to do what he said he is going to do. I can hold onto that promise and it changes the way I pray! After that, I stopped praying asking God to save my husband, and began praying, “Thank you God for saving my husband.” I’m thanking God for what he said he would do. He wants us to have faith. Faith isn’t believing after we see it, it’s believing before we see it. When I realized God’s word is true, I wasn’t trusting in me, I was trusting Him. Ultimately, my husband gave his life to Christ, he surrendered to the ministry, went to seminary, and has been the pastor at the nursing home where I work for three years now. Get out of God’s way. Get on your knees and thank God in advance for whatever it is you’re praying for, and trust him. Don’t pray with an agenda. Praying believing God will answer, but then surrender the how and the when to him. That way he gets the glory, but we get to witness God’s goodness and faithfulness. God has never and will never go back on a promise. If you stop getting into God’s word, that’s when the flesh takes over. The flesh will start questioning and doubting when you aren’t studying God’s word. God’s word is where you will find the strength, the wisdom, the courage, the faith, and everything you need to push through your painful trial. The enemy will do everything he can to try to doubt God. Hold onto God’s promises. The only strength that you have is God’s word. The longer a tea bag stays in boiling water, the stronger that tea becomes. Likewise, the more we stay in God’s word, the stronger we become, not in our own strength but in His, so that when those trials come, we can stand steadfast on those promises we know. Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 6:14 NIV “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” James 1:6 NIV “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” 2 Peter 3:9 NIV “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 1 John 5:14-15 NIV “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” Joshua 23:14 NIV "Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” Philippians 4:19 NIV “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Genesis 50:20 NIV “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Philippians 4:6 NIV “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Recommended Resources: Trusting God While Praying for Lost Loved Ones How to Maintain Hope While Waiting for the Salvation of a loved One –Your Hope Filled Perspective, Episode 167 Sacred Scars: Resting in God’s Promise That Your Past Is Not Wasted by Dr. Michelle Bengtson The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out to God When Pain Overwhelms by Dr. Michelle Bengtson YouVersion 5-Day Devotional Reaching Out To God When Pain Overwhelms Today is Going to be a Good Day: 90 Promises to Start Your Day Off Right by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the AWSA 2023 Inspirational Gift Book of the Year Award, the Christian Literary Awards Reader’s Choice Award in four categories, and the Christian Literary Awards Henri Award for Devotionals YouVersion 7-Day Devotional, Today is Going to be a Good Day YouVersion 7-Day Devotional, Today is Going to be Another Good Day Breaking Anxiety’s Grip: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises by Dr. Michelle Bengtson Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Free Study Guide Free 7-Day YouVersion Bible Reading Plan for Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through Depression by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Hope Prevails Bible Study by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Trusting God Through Cancer 1 Trusting God Through Cancer 2 Revive & Thrive Women's Conference Subdue Stress and Anxiety: Fifteen Experts Offer Comprehensive Tools in Ten Minutes a Day. Use my link plus discount code BENG99 to save $90 on course (course will be $99.) Free Download: How To Fight Fearful/Anxious Thoughts and Win Social Media Links for Guest and Host: Connect with Bunny Zekzaman: Website / Facebook / Instagram For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at: Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails / Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson) / LinkedIn / Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube Guest: Bunny Yekzaman is a child of the King, a wife of over 40 years, mother of four & grandmother of many grandchildren She is a disaster relief chaplain, and works as an Enrichment specialist for a nursing home. Her passion is sharing God’s love & truth with a faith in His faithfulness to His promises. She lives with hope for her lost family and friends and finds it her calling to pray in faith for them. Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson Audio Technical Support: Bryce Bengtson
