by Richelle Hecker

Trusting God’s silence.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Be gracious to me, O Lord,
For to You I cry all day long.”
Psalm 86:3 New American Standard Version

Do you ever wake up in the morning praying, because you fell asleep praying the night before? I know I do. When there is an issue heavy on my heart, I find myself constantly in prayer. This doesn’t mean I’m always on my knees, hands folded, and eyes closed. That wouldn’t be practical. Instead I speak to God, in my thoughts, as I go about daily tasks.

When distressing situations arise, few people have the luxury of stopping everything to address God in prayer for long periods of time. This is especially true when the situation takes years to resolve. Instead, when the sun rises we rise as well. We make our beds, take showers, prepare breakfast, and pray as we go. If our distress is deep enough, we do not cease praying sunrise to sunset.

It takes an incredible amount of faith to cry out to God all day long. We have no reason to take our problems to Him if we don’t believe He exists or that He will not answer us. If we do not believe those two things then we are not praying, we are worrying. Obviously, it takes even more faith to pray and wait years before we receive an answer. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit, pressing us forward in faith when we want to give up trusting and believing.

There are a myriad of reasons why God makes us wait. He may be wanting changes in us or changes in others. There may be situations beyond our own that need to shift, in order to bring about God’s solution for us. Others may be impacted in positive ways we could never predict. He may allow things to get so grim that we must admit it was Him who came to our rescue.

Most importantly, when we’ve waited far beyond what we believed we could handle before our answers come, our faith is increased.

Keep praying. God promises that He will answer, and you will be amazed at all He accomplishes.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO