Thankfully, God doesn't respond that way and has been known to answer when we are the most persistent (ask Hannah or Hezekiah).
There is a prayer I've prayed for so many years that I've often joked that I could have written one of David's "How long, O Lord?" Psalms. Isn't it just like God to give me Psalm 22 to blog about today when David asks the question that has probably been on the tip of many of our tongues many times, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We recognize this too as quoted by Jesus on the cross but also because when we are really honest and really get past our church-y responses, deep down, we all know we have asked this question before.
And for me, when I felt the most forsaken and decided to take matters into my own hands, certain that I could answer my own prayer, that's when I fell flat on my face in the cycle of addiction. I looked up one day and realized that in my misguided attempt to be my own god, I had been "poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death" (verses 14-15).
Maybe you have been there. Maybe you are headed there today. Maybe you have already arrived and are wondering just how to get out of the mess you have made. David goes on to remind us that the Lord is our strength (v. 19), that he can deliver and rescue us (v. 20-21), that he does not despise the afflicted or hidden his face from them but that he has listened to our cries for help (v. 24).
It is only when we are willing to humble ourselves and reach out to him that we will find that he has not walked away. He gladly reaches out his arm and pulls us out of the pit of our own making.
And maybe, just his presence is the real answer to all our prayers anyway.
- submitted by Holly Barrett
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