May 21, 2024

Psalm 120.1 (NIV)
I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me.

Persistent prayer stays the course until his perfect answer comes.*

We say that we believe that God hears and answers our prayers. We are told that “no” and “wait” are answers, and this provides us a small measure of comfort when God seems silent. But deep down I have to wonder if such ambiguity is really what God has promised us. According to the psalmist in this verse, God answers.

As someone has observed, “We utter a prayer, wanting immediate results. . .  . By the time God’s answer comes we’ve forgotten we asked.”* This has been true of me more often than I would like to admit, but I can also testify that I have occasionally heard God’s answer clearly and timely, especially when my request was for direction or assurance rather than for some thing. Often it was an immediate and personal reply heard inside my head. Many times he has led me to a passage of Scripture that practically shouted at me. Frequently, God has spoken through a sermon, a lesson, a group discussion, or the words of another writer.

I have found it helpful to journal my prayers and seek God’s answer through the process of elimination. I list all the things I might do to solve this problem for myself. As I follow each scenario to its logical conclusion, I usually find that God is clearly telling me that he wants me to wait. A definitive “no” often takes a little longer to comprehend as I stubbornly cling to my selfish desire to get what I want.

We are not all natural-born good listeners. I have been practicing my listening skills with my friends and I have been blessed for it. How much greater the blessing if I learn to listen for God’s answer!

Persevere until the answer comes. Prayer is supposed to have an answer.*