* I know it is not actually Friday, but I didn't get a chance to do my Faithful Fridays post last week and it has been nagging at me. Funnily enough, I had already felt what I needed to be writing about- but during my quiet time this morning God really brought it to my attention! :) I love how timely His word always is! I was reading in Nehemiah chapter 9, and if you get a chance, I would encourage you to read it- it is a great summary of the events in the OT, and really shows how faithful, merciful, and patient God truly is! Ok, on to my post. :)

"The Lord is righteous in all of His ways, gracious in all of His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him." Psalm 145:17-19

"The Lord said, 'I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel." Exodus 16:11

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses." Psalm 107:13

"I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live." Psalm 116:1-2

"I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place." Psalm 118:5

"You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea." Nehemiah 9:9

"And in the time of their trouble, when they cried out to You, You heard from heaven;  and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies....  yet when they had teturned and cried out to You, You heard from heaven; and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies." Nehemiah 9: 27, 28b

And on and on and on.
The Bible is a love story. From the very beginning, it is a story of God and His love for His people- people who betray Him, people who hurt Him, people who ignore Him. It is a story of His love and redemptive work for these undeserving people, from the very beginning of creation until now, and it continues on. The OT is, in its entirety, a story of God wooing these people before His redemptive plan is set in fully in motion by the death of His Son on the cross.

One thing that stands out to me is how often people in the Bible cry out to God, and circumstances in which they fall to their knees... bondage (Israelites, Exodus), hunger (Israelites in the wilderness, Exodus 16), poverty, inability to have a child (Rachel, Genesis 30:22; Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:19-20; Elizabeth, Luke 1:13), losing a child (David, 2 Samuel 13:16), war (Israelites, Isaiah), uncertainty... the list is lengthy... and a reflection of modern struggles. Another thing that stands out to me is how often, as soon as their needs (or wants) are met, the people go back to their idolatry and sinfulness and again turn their backs to God (until the next bad thing happens). We talked last time about God's faithfulness even in the face of that betrayal.

But yet, God continues to hear us. Every time we cry out to Him, with words or just in the pain of our hearts, He hears us. The Bible is full of proof. He hears us! He hears our pain and our struggles, our uncertainty and our worry. He hears us and He responds.

There are those who believe, however, that praying to God or telling Him what you need is an automatic "yes". That is not Biblical. There is not a "special prayer" that you can say to make God do what you want Him to do. He is not a genie! He does not exist to grant you your every desire. Thinking that you can control God by praying is a dangerous thought. Pastors and books who tell you this are making money off of you and perpetuating a lie. We are not promised God's compliance with our wishes. Realizing, however, that He does respond to prayer IS a powerful thought. Prayer not only serves to reflect your need for a God, but your trust in one- that you realize that there is Someone who is big enough to handle those prayers, those worries, those desires. That trust often serves as a catalyst for beneficial results, though they may not be the results we were after.

There are also those who believe that because they do not get the outcome they were praying for, God must not have been listening. That is not biblical either.  God doesn't ignore some prayers and listen to others. God doesn't turn His back on you because you have prayed the same thing day in and day out. He doesn't pick and choose. He hears them all- but the way He responds to things is a testament to His infinite wisdom. Sometimes He answers us with a no. Why? We don't always know. Looking for a purpose or a reason in every bad thing that happens to us can drive us crazy. This side of heaven, nothing is perfect. Nothing. Bad things happen. That is the effect of sin in a fallen world. But we do know that He has promised us this: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28. That doesn't mean He has to EXPLAIN why, or give us insight into why- but it does mean that we can trust that everything, even the bad things, even the "no" answers, work together for our good (and not just our good, but the good of others who love God)- and we can be comforted by that. We don't always know that people are going to be affected in a positive way by our struggles, or that what we go through will, in some way, have an impact on this world for Christ.
Paul is such a great example of this:

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Paul PLEADED with God. God said no. Paul's response? Rejoice in it- because it meant that God's power could rest on him, and he would be made stronger through Him. And the effect of this? Here we are, centuries later, still hearing this testimony and feeling comforted by it! Do you think Paul knew what kind of impact it would have on the world? Probably not... but he did receive peace from his own acceptance of God's answer and His perfect will... and sometimes that peace is the BEST thing we could ask for.