Answer Me

“Are you listening to me?” How many of us men have heard that statement? “Do you hear me? How many mothers have spoken that to a child? We like to know that we are being heard when we are speaking. Are YOU paying attention? I just wanted to make sure you were focused on what’s being written here.

When we make a statement and especially when we make a request; we like to know that we have been heard. An answer is appreciated. The last sentence of Elijah’s prayer is: “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” (1 Kings 18:37). He wants an answer to his prayer so that the people will know that the Lord is God. He is praying for the Glory of God. But that’s not all.

We pray for the Glory of God AND the good of the people. He wanted their hearts to be turned back to God. He wanted God to be BIG and the people to be BETTER. I know that’s pretty simplistic but it is true. What if the people you are around could truly know and comprehend how big and awesome God is and how much better their lives could be as a result of a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ? I believe the world would be a better place and we would begin to experience what the Lord has told us to pray for – “thy Kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10).

You may be thinking, “Yea, but I HAVE prayed and not much has happened.” There are at least three reasons our prayers don’t seem to be effective. First, sin can place a barrier between us and our Father that will hinder our prayers. Please give serious consideration to Isaiah 59:1-2. “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” Another hindrance to our prayers may be that we are asking for the wrong things or for the wrong reasons. In James we read: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3). Finally the answer comes in God’s perfect time not in ours. That’s good news because He understands the beginning from the end and He alone has the big picture of all of life. We must be patient to wait on his timing. I read a quote that convicted me, “We don’t wait well. We’re into microwaving; God, on the other hand, is usually into marinating.” – Dutch Sheets. So we must pray with patient endurance.

Elijah’s first prayer was answered immediately. The people “saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” (1 Kings 18:39). His second prayer for rain took some persistence (1 Kings 18:42-45). The only pray God cannot answer is one that is not prayed!

 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.  (Jeremiah 33:3)