Answered Prayers

O Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you. May my prayer come before you, turn your ear to my cry. Psalm 88:1-2

How often have you thought, "Does God really hear me when I pray? Does He truly care about my deepest needs and desires?". The bible instructs us to 'pray without ceasing' — 1 Thessalonians 5:17.; to 'ask, seek and knock' Matthew 7:7-8, but how do we handle the silence, the continued longing and the closed doors?

A friend boldly stated that "God wasn't helping her: that He hadn't done anything for her." Can that really be true? He's never offered help?

So many times, our prayers to God rise up with all sincerity and humility, yet underneath we often have expectations on how we want the prayers to be answered. We offer up a 'spec' sheet with our prayer - indicating the timing and delivery method.

When silence resounds, we question...we doubt...we stomp our feet - kicking and screaming like a two year in the midst of a full-blown temper tantrum.

I've often prayed for 'answers' to questions in my life - struggles with emotional pain, physical/health challenges and difficult relationships with friends and family. Some of these have been answered, over time; others still remain unanswered.

Earlier this summer, I found myself wrenched with deep emotional pain over a long-standing struggle. I questioned my faith in God - doubting His love for me. In my own efforts to get God's attention (demanding an immediate response), I found myself deeper embedded in the pain. Broken and weary from the fight, I cried out to God - begging for an answer.

The next day, my cell phone indicated an awaiting message. A Christian friend had left a message (a daily devotional reading) on my machine that she felt moved by the Spirit to read. This simple, yet powerful, act offered me a renewed sense of hope and trust in God. Not the resolution to my problem, but the answer I needed in that moment. God's response clearly demonstrated His Love for me; He met my deepest need via a distant 'messenger'.

Here's the message that she left:

I need only to look and see that all things happen in their own time. The resolution of each problem has it's own timetable. No amount of wishing, wringing of hands or raging will effect a change.

"Acceptance is the simple act of going through what is presently facing me, be it pain, anger, despair, hopelessness or their opposites. When life as it really is becomes a fact that I accept as naturally as I breathe, events lose their
power to throw me off balance or disturb the basic rhythm of my life."
~ From the book For Today (a daily devotional)

(Side note: My friend lives out-of-state; we hadn't spoken or seen each other in months. Our relationship could best be described as 'casual acquaintances' - suffice to say, she had no knowledge of my struggles at that point in my life).