After many twists and turns, I began offering a special prayer on August 1. I named it myself: the “Ask-Seek-Knock Prayer.” Yes, it is the prayer method of asking, seeking, and knocking. Many people pray, but not many seem to go as far as practicing the prayer that the Lord Himself taught. Through my life and ministry, I have experienced that praying only with asking is not enough.

When we are in need, it is natural to ask. But after that, we must seek God’s answer. We must search with open eyes. Sometimes God has already placed the answer right beside us or before us, yet we fail to notice and therefore fail to receive it. And when we think we have “found” it, then we must test whether it is truly God’s answer. That is the stage of knocking. It is like going to buy a ripe watermelon—when you think you’ve found the right one, you knock on it to make sure.

Now, after forty days of practicing the Ask-Seek-Knock Prayer, I have come to a great realization: God surpasses all understanding. The keyword here is “understanding.” In the sense that God knows all things, He surpasses every understanding. Yet for me, this same word carries another nuance. When it comes to answering my prayers and petitions, the Lord almost always seems to be late. It is rare that I pray in the morning and receive the answer by evening. If He would respond immediately, it would feel so reassuring and refreshing—but almost always, He seems delayed.

Why does He respond so late in all these moments? Those who are people of prayer will quickly recognize the reason. The answer is actually simple: it is because my thoughts and timing run ahead of God’s timing and method. For example, I may ask because I am in need. Then I seek with urgency and desperation. My heart is so impatient that everything I see begins to look like an answer. So I knock here and there recklessly. But in doing so, I miss one essential thing: waiting. In that process, I fail to wait for God’s time at work. This, I realize, is the weakness of my own “late” perception.

Through this season of special prayer, I have learned one important truth: prayer is about aligning myself to God’s timing. To ask through prayer is like submitting an application for a wage advance—requesting that God would work according to His time and method. Ultimately, the only way this is possible is by faith. That is why the Bible declares, “Nothing will be impossible for the one who believes.”

Jesus, I am in urgent need right now. I’m applying for an advance—please, even if You come a little late, it will still be okay.