Do you ever want to scream out to God, with a tear stained face and eyes so swollen you don’t even know how they manage to blink? You don’t have the perfect words, and being polite is not something you can possibly muster…so all that comes to mind in your bitter rage is, “God, where the heck are you?! And why aren’t you answering my prayers?” After its recital, you’re not even sure if it was a question to Him, or a rude demand.
And then your mind spirals into whether the reason He isn’t answering your prayers is because they are not good enough, kind enough, specific enough. You’re desperate, so your mind keeps cycling.
Maybe I’ve been offering Him too little thanks; ok, less requests and more gratitude you think.
Maybe my prayers are not eloquent enough; ok, then I’ll flower them up a little bit.
Maybe my delivery method isn’t meeting His expectations; ok, I’ll revert from kneeling, to trying to get even lower, like maybe I’ll lay down next time with my nose to the carpet. And if that doesn’t give me results, then I can always try standing with my hands erect toward the Heavens. At this point, you don’t even know whether you’re bartering with yourself, or you’re bartering with God.
Speaking of bartering, you then find yourself offering Him a pinky promise. “God, I promise…like really, really promise…if you answer this one and only prayer of mine, I’ll never, ever, ever ask you for anything else in my life.” Or, “God…if you answer my prayer, I promise I will do anything you ask of me (and yes, God, I really do mean anything).”
And then you panic, because you’re not really sure you do mean anything. So you backtrack a little. You’re not bold enough to correct your statement to Him aloud, so you put a teeny tiny asterisk next to the word in your mind. So although you didn’t say it, you hope He interprets it to mean: anything*.
*as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the health or safety of me or my family.
At this point, you’re willing to try whatever to get a response, acknowledgement, or a sign from Him that He hears you. And not only that He hears you, but that He’s working behind the scenes to make the visions of your prayer a reality in your life.
Friend, stop. Take a deep breath.
God hears you.
It doesn’t matter if you’re kneeling, laying, or standing.
God hears you.
It doesn’t matter if you speak your prayer aloud, or whether you recite it in your mind because you have no energy to talk.
God hears you.
It doesn’t matter if your prayers are peppered with scriptures, or are merely unedited fragments.
God hears you.
Rely on God’s Word.
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26, NIV).
God intercedes for us (for you, for me) in our weakness, even if groans are all we can get out. It doesn’t matter if our words are flowery, or whether they’re packaged with a neat red bow. It doesn’t matter if they’re delivered while standing, kneeling, or laying down.
God hears us.
We must have hope.
“If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:25, NIV).
Read that again.
“If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently [emphasis added].”
We should not panic. We should not give up. We should not question whether our prayer is worth answering, or our situation worth saving.
We must have faith and trust.
Your life may feel like the life of the disciples in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 8, when “without warning, a furious storm came up” (Matthew 8:24, NIV). Those disciples didn’t trust. They panicked.
Then, after witnessing their panic, Jesus said,““You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm” (Matthew 8:26, NIV).
Remember friends, when the time is right, Jesus will rebuke the winds and the waves in our life, too. Until then, let’s patiently remain prayerful, faithful, hopeful, and loving knowing that God hears our every word and every groan. Even if we haven’t gotten an audible response from Him. Even if we don’t have a sign. Our proof is in His Word.
Hang in there.
