Daily devotional, Nov 27, 2023 The Voicemail

"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them." 
Psalm 145:18-19

Have you ever had the experience of needing to talk to someone ASAP, and then you call them and hear the prompt “please leave a message”? In the 1990s this meant that the phone call was picked up by an answering machine, and now in the digital age it means that the other person is not available to take the call.

It can be frustrating to need to talk to someone and then that other person is unavailable. The good news is, the One we need to talk to for anything and everything is available to us 24/7, will never route our calls to answering machines or voicemail, and is even waiting for us to call on Him:

"Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you." 
Isaiah 30:18

Regardless of where we are in our relationship with the Lord, He hears all our cries. He hears our struggles and laments. In Genesis 16, Hagar the slave woman and surrogate who bore Abram a son, was so distraught when Abram’s wife got angry at her and she ran away. The Lord spoke to her and told her to submit to her master and that He will give her a son and multiply her descendants.

“The angel of the LORD also said to her: ‘You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.'” Genesis 16:11

But not everyone who cries seeks Him. Not everyone gives the Lord a chance to work on their lives. Some people turn to other things that push them deeper into despair because these are sinful indulgences. Addictions, wrong relationships, materialism and consumerism, and the like bring temporary happiness but will never help any problematic person get out of His trouble and attain peace of mind.

When going through a crisis, call on God because He promises to hear you. To answer you. In the Psalm that King David wrote when he pretended to be insane to survive the attacks of his enemies, he said:

"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles." 
Psalm 34:17

So does this mean that God will get rid of our problems right away? If it is in His will, then yes:

"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us." 
1 John 5:14

We also of course should keep in mind that His promise to help us out comes with a premise. That we should abide. When we call on to God, that means we accept His Lordship over our life. It means following His commands and repenting of our sinful ways. It means making following Him our topmost priority. Let us remember the Apostle Paul’s exhortation over the Hebrew church:

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." 
Hebrews 11:6

So what if you still did not get what you prayed for no matter how much you abide? Then keep in mind that maybe that is the Lord’s answer to your prayer. Maybe He is telling you to wait. Or maybe He is saying “no” to you because resolving the issue your way will not be in your best interest. We should remember that everything happens for a reason especially for those who believe in God. Let us take comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:28:

"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

No matter what our problems are, no matter how big they seem to be, we should know that we have a bigger, mightier God, who hears us when we call and will never route our prayers to heavenly answering machines. He promises to hold us through our darkest ordeals and deliver us through it. All we need is to surrender it all to Him, repent, and abide in Him, and He will reign in our lives. Let us exalt Christ as the King of our lives!

Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on Genesis 16 and 1 John 5:14-15 to dig deeper on today’s topic.

Reflection Question: Are you calling on God in times of trouble? Do you feel like He is on the other line or does it seem that He has put you through voicemail?

Conversation with the Lord: Almighty Father, thank you for always being available to hear my cries. I am sorry that there are times that you are not the first one I run to when I am in trouble. Allow me to fully trust and surrender all my problems to you because only you can resolve it for the best. Amen.