I've been walking alongside a friend who is experiencing the pain of divorce. My friend has questioned many times why God did not answer his prayer for the divorce not to go through, especially since God hates divorce.
My friend was comforted to realize that God indeed heard the cries of his heart underlying the words of his prayer. I asked him to try to articulate the deepest cry of his heart. He said, "I'm hurting so much and I'm so confused. But I know the Lord is with me and will never leave me."
The following verse comforted both of us with the great love our Father has for us:
For there is not a word on my tongue,
but behold, O LORD,
You know it altogether.
(Psalm 139:4)
Just when we are tempted to believe that God does not hear our prayers, He reveals that He hears us even before we speak!
Imagine this! The God of the universe who has a gazillion things to control every millisecond of every day past, present, and future...this God, yes, God our Father, still has all the time in the world to clearly hear us! Oh how He deeply cares for us!
And our God never slumbers nor sleeps so that He hears our every sleeping breath that He gives us (Psalm 121:4).
GOD ANSWERS OUR HEARTS
God, who is love, and who hears us before we even cry out to Him, would never then not speak to us and act on our behalf. We will grow in cherishing the truth that God hears us when we grow in knowing God the Father's true character revealed by the Spirit through His Word.
Seeking answers to prayers without worshiping the God who compassionately hears us is actually self-serving. However, each of our true hearts is to grow in our personal heart-to-heart relationship with God.
I have heard it said that sometimes God answers our prayers "Yes," sometimes "No," and sometimes "Not yet." I suppose this is logically true, but I believe our relationship with God is so much deeper than that.
Now to Him (God our Father)
who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly
above all we ask or think,
according to the power
that works in us,
to Him be glory
in the church by Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever.
So God's answers us according to (in proportion to) the resurrection power of Christ in us and is for the purpose of conforming us to the image of Christ!
Because we are united with Christ in the deepest aspect of our spiritual hearts, this is the cry of our hearts, and the cry that God delights in hearing!
God Hears You and Me!
