Prayer + Free Will = Waiting
Why does praying for others take so long, and many times not get answered. Meanwhile praying for yourself get answered often and faster?
Free will
You see when you pray for someone God does move into action in his own ways. He begins setting in motion divine appointments, events, people that will cross that persons path. Not to mention signs, wonders, situations, nudges and infinite other things. But your prayer does not (usually) instantly change the person because they have free will. And the only way God could instantly change a person from a prayer is:
- Someone else had started praying for the person much earlier and now was the combined fulfillment of your prayers.
or - God turns that person into a robot, removing their ability to think and choose their own choices.
Obviously No.2 is not something God does. Bazillion pieces of evidence about that across human history. But it's the fact we all seem to ignore. That God won't just snap his fingers and change a persons personality against their will. Which is why our prayers are not answered instantly. We really should not expect prayers for other people to be answered instantly...
However when you pray for yourself. Now that is a different discussion because:
When you pray for yourself you are giving God permission to change you.
When you pray for yourself, his answer is not removing your free will. It's him responding and honoring your free will actually!
Watchout, I'm gonna bring out the P word next... So when you are praying for others remember to have
Patience
Because God is going to put your prayer into action, but he's going to do it lovingly and mercifully to guide that person without turning that person into a robot.