Confident expectation

‘Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.’ Psalm 38.15

This verse expresses a wonderful confidence in the certainty of God answering prayer.  Of course, all prayers are answered – as someone rather jokingly said: “God, I know you answer all my prayers, but couldn’t you sometimes say yes?”

However, the writer of this psalm has something different in mind and there is a confidence about his prayers that is reflected in the statement: ‘I wait for you’.  It is one thing to pray and articulate our needs to God, but it is quite another to wait in expectation for the answer – whatever it may be.  Waiting in expectation expresses confidence that our prayer has been heard.  It involves holding on by faith and trusting that what we speak is heard by God.  It also carries with it a sense of trust; in whatever ways our prayers are answered, we trust he will bring about his glory and that his love to us will be demonstrated.

There is a responsibility in prayer.  It is not simply about us handing whatever issues we choose to God and then bringing another list of things the next day.  It is also about us holding these things in confident expectation of his answer.

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