And yet He does answer all
things. Whether or not I realize it, God hears me even before I speak (Isaiah
65:24), much as He heard the groanings and cries of suffering from the children
of Israel in Exodus 6:5 and 22:23,27. He knows those that suffer and hurts for
them. (Jer. 29:12,13; Jer. 31:9) At the same time, all things have a purpose,
His purpose and He desires that I understand that He will avenge my pain, or at
least assuage it, when His purpose is complete. My task as one of His is to
stick with Him. No matter what. To
acknowledge Him as Lord, standing before the alter as Solomon did after those
many years and at once praise Him in private and public (1Kings 8:22) Serving
Him purely, with a humble heart, as Solomon did (1 Chronicles 28:9) Even when
it seems like He is not hearing me, Job 30:20: “I cry unto thee, and thou does
not hear me. I stand up and thou regardest me not”. Even when I am trying to knock the bricks in
my wall down my self with all kinds of self-help books and programs, and I am
not listening for God. He says He will answer me (Jer 33:3). Even when I tell
God I can do by myself, He knows I cannot. But He also knows that I have to
come to that realization of the absolute and undeniable truth of “Our Father,
Who truly art in heaven, without any doubt or question.” He knows that I have
to realize the truth of Job 8:5,6, “If thou wouldst seek unto God betimes, and
make thy supplication to the Almighty: If though were pure and upright; surely
now he would awake for thee and make the habitat of thy righteousness
prosperous.” He has seen to my needs of food, fellowship, fidelity, and
faithfulness. And He knows that inherently I, like all other humans, have a
need to fill the empty holes and cling to something. It is when I actually
understand that I have holes that only God can fill and that my life is not my
own, but His, that I understood that my cries and longings have not gone on
deaf ears. He had told me a long time before I was born that He will be good to
me if I wait on Him in His throne room. (Lev 3:25) and that all I need to do is
call on Him, that He is a jealous God for my call (Joel 2: 18, 19,32) When I
seek to fill the holes with things that will fade away, God shakes His head
because He knows that it is me that is blocking His view. (Amos 5:4-6) Not God.
It is my own pride, my own short-sightedness that prevents me from reaping
rewards that otherwise could be mine, if I allow God to be as big as He is. My
attitude lacks something of humility, and I cannot go before Him truly until I
develop the attitude that Hosea describes in Hosea 12:4, “Yea, [Jacob] had
power over the angel and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him, he
found him in Bethel and thus he spoke with him.” While God knows my heart, he
knows when my intentions are haughty and when they are humble, he also listens
to the soft cries when I realize I have no where to turn. I too can wrestle
with the angel, as long as I come to the realization that I have hit rock
bottom and have no where to run to. Then can I “seek the Lord and His strength,
seek His face continually and say, ‘Save us, O God of our salvation and gather
us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy
holy name and glory in thy praise’” (1Chronicles 16:11,35, 2Chronicles 7:14) Then can I seek His kingdom as Matthew says
(Matt 6:33ff). That concept is not a new one. It has been in God’s history for
quite some time, as in Zephaniah 2:3, and Zechariah 13:9. Jesus carried it
through in his teachings over and over to teach his disciples and me in the
future about running to God in prayer (Matt 18:19,20, Matt 21:22)
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