Call to God

What a wonderful privilege and opportunity we have to bring our requests to the LORD in prayer!  Speaking to God has none of the hindrances we experience with modern phones.  We can call but it does not mean anyone is available to talk.  They may not receive or hear a notification, and when we leave a message it can go unread and unanswered.  Our phones can run out of battery or be out of the range of networks which renders communication using them impossible.  Communication with God depends upon the LORD who knows and does all things, God who does not slumber or sleep, and His ears are always open to our cries.  The God who appeared Solomon and said, "Ask!  What shall I give you?" is just as eager and willing to respond to our praying.

The Bible has many examples of people who were locked up and prevented from contacting others yet had continuous communion with God--and sometimes it was God who initiated the call!  Jeremiah 33:1-3 says, "Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, ² "Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name): ³ 'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'"  While Jeremiah was imprisoned, the God who created all things spoke to Jeremiah and invited him to call.  He did not need a mobile phone, data plan, remember the country code and to input a correct sequence of numbers:  Jeremiah only needed faith in the LORD God and willingness to pray.  He was not given the right to a single call but could speak with God continuously night and day by God's grace.  God promised to show him "...great and mighty things, which you do not know."  We can be swept up with wanting to know what to do, God's plans, or details concerning the future, but there is nothing greater or mightier than God Himself.  In learning to pray and calling to God in obedience we come to know God in ways we hadn't before.

It is faith in God that gives urgency in praying, confident God's will shall be done.  Though our lives on earth are a brief moment in time in the light of eternity, have you considered how your prayers do not have a shelf life?  They will not pass away with us.  Though we may not see the fulfillment of our request in person, we can know God will hear and answer as we pray according to His will.  There were Hebrews for hundreds of years born into slavery in Egypt who died there, yet their prayers for God to deliver his people were heard by Him.  The voices of those who perished under their burdens were in God's good time answered in the affirmative when He led the children of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand by Moses.  Pleas of intercession on behalf of God's people continued unabated even after voices were silenced by the grave until God did His wonders.  If it is worthwhile praying once, we are to pray without ceasing to God who invites us to call to Him and is inclined to show favour and goodness for thousands of generations.

God is longsuffering, but He is never slack.  God who sends lightning hurtling to earth faster than our eyes can perceive is able to answer our prayers in an instant; before we ask He is ready to answer.  David prayed in Psalm 86:6-7:  "Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. ⁷ In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me."  The same God who promised to reveal to His servants what to say in their hour of need (Matthew 10:19) is able to hear us in the day of trouble, answer and save.  Praise the LORD our sins which once separated us from God have been atoned for and purged by Jesus whose hands are extended to save and has ears that hear our prayers (Isaiah 59:1-2).