#DailyDevotion God Hears & Answers Prayers
Psalm 3 5I lie down and sleep and then wake up because the LORD supports me. 6I’m not afraid of an army of tens of thousands, that attacks me from all sides. 7Come, O LORD! Save me, my God! Hit all my enemies in the face, and smash the teeth of the wicked. 8Only You can save, O LORD; so bless Your people. (Music)
Jesus on the cross cries out to help from his Father. It does not appear God hears him at first. This is very much like Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus dies at the hands of his enemies. It looks like all is lost. He is buried in a borrowed grave. So as this Psalm says, “I lie down and sleep.”
In your life it may appear as if the LORD does not hear your cries for mercy. Everything seems to be going wrong. Your enemies seem to have gotten the upper hand. Sin, death and the devil attack you on all sides with disease, suffering and pain. Then you too fall asleep and are laid in the grave. Did God not hear your cry? Did God say no to your prayers? I think not.
Did God abandon Jesus? Did the Father not hear and listen to Jesus’ cries? Absolutely not! Jesus wakes up because the LORD supported him. He rose from the grave victorious and ascended to the right hand of the Father in power and glory. If God the Father answers Jesus’ prayers like this, will he not hear, listen and answer your prayers in similar fashion? He most certainly will. So must live in faith, the same faith Jesus trusted God his Father with as he walked visibly among us, suffered and died.
The LORD of hosts came and saved Jesus from the grave. He hit all his enemies in the face and smashed the teeth of the wicked. Only the Father could save him. So death and the devil are put down for the sake of Jesus. When Jesus returns, will not the LORD of hosts cast death, the devil and all the wicked who afflicted us (unless they repent) into the Lake of Fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth? As Jesus is resurrected from the dead he most certainly will. Jesus will raise you from the dead even as he is risen from the dead. As the prophet says, “You will frolic like a calf let out of a stall and trample upon the ashes of the wicked.”
As Jesus was so blessed, he says, “and so bless your people.” Yes, even as the Father blessed Jesus by raising him from the dead and seating him at the right hand of the Father, you who trust in him will be seated with him in the heavenly places. You will even sit on the Father’s throne with Jesus and rule with him. So God our Father hears and answers our prayers. He answers them in the way that is best for us and the Church. It may not be in this life that we see the answers to our prayers. This is why we live by faith, trusting in the promises of God.
Merciful God and Father, grant us faith like Jesus’ which trusts in you at all times, through all circumstances, so we may see the answer to our prayers as you showed to Jesus the answer to his prayers, and we may live our lives with faith in your son Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.