“O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come” (Psalm 65:2).

When we pray to God the Father, in the name of His Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we can be sure that He does hear our prayers, and He will answer them, in His time, not ours. The omniscient God knows our needs before we ask them, and He knows what is in our hearts better than we do ourselves. “But verily God hath heard me; He hath attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19). “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22).

It is very easy to get discouraged when we pray if our prayer is not answered in what we consider a timely manner. Sometimes we expect an immediate answer, and it does not come that quickly. As the sovereign Creator of time (Genesis 1:1), He reigns outside of time, and while He recognizes the present (from our perspective), He also knows the past and the future. Only from His vantage point can the timing as well as substance of a proper answer to prayer be discerned. We can and must rest in His sovereign control of His creation, including us. “For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper” (Psalm 72:12). “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

There are times when it appears the Lord does not hear us and our prayers are never answered, but through our faith and trust in Him we should realize that He will “Give ear to [our] prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from [our] supplication” (Psalm 55:1). We know that He always knows what is best for us regardless of what we ourselves think we want or need. “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion” (Psalm 71:1). MRT