May 4, 2024

Psalm 66.20 (NIV)

Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

God’s best answer to “why” is often, “Be still and know that I am God.”*

Rejecting my prayer is not the same thing as not giving me what I asked for. No and wait are answers, too. But the psalmist here is not declaring that God has never rejected any of his prayers; he is referring to a specific prayer.

Does God ever reject our prayers? According to Lamentations 3.8 and 44, he does. Verse 8 says, “Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.” And in verse 44, we read, “You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.”

While faith and a pure heart are essential to answered prayer, they are worthless without God’s lovingkindness. I read somewhere that God cannot not love us, but there are indications in scripture that he can and does withhold his love. In this verse the psalmist implies that God could have withheld his love, and praises God that he didn’t do so. In II Samuel 7.15, God makes a promise to David regarding his (David’s) offspring: “But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul.” If he took his love away from Saul, he can certainly take it away from me.

We should not live in fear that God will reject our prayers or withhold his love. As in every aspect of our relationship with God, our acceptance has nothing to do with our worthiness and everything to do with his mercy. But if we choose to walk away from God, we can expect that he will reject us and our prayers.

In a society where answers come with a click, I am . . . tempted to give up hope when God is long in responding to my prayers.*