When God Answers Back
May 13, 2019 1968
When most people pray, it’s usually just one-way traffic. We’re usually telling God what we think we need, we’re asking God for this or that, or we’re giving God our opinions on different issues. I doubt that many of us would actually care to have God answer back, or even think that he might. But what if he did?
What would that be like? You can actually get an idea from the times in the Bible that God did answer back.
King Hezekiah of Judah was dying, and he prayed for God to heal him. God decided to do so (2 Kings 20:1–6). I’m sure that if Hezekiah could have looked back on the extra fifteen years that he lived after that, he would have taken back his prayer. They were wasted, badly-lived years, which contributed to the final destruction of his kingdom.
When the old apostle John was on the prison-island of Patmos, he was praying. Surely the dire persecutions of his fellow-believers, and his own situation was on his mind. I can imagine that he had been praying for a long time. Suddenly, the Lord decided to answer him, and he heard behind him “a loud voice like a trumpet” (Rev 1:10, NIV). John says that he fell at the Lord’s feet “as though dead” (v.17).
Are you ready for God to answer back at you?
Job had been suffering incredible loss, personal tragedies, and horrible illnesses. He bitterly keeps complaining to God about the unfairness of it all. Then suddenly,
the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: “Who is this that questions my wisdomwith such ignorant words? (Job 38:1–2, NLT).
So, what if God spoke back at youand startled you, like he did to John. What if he gave you what you wanted, but it was the worst thing that you could have had, like Hezekiah? What if he answered you and told you that everything that you had been praying to him only revealed your ignorance.
The problems of life are not only difficult; often they’re impossible! We need the wisdom from above, from the one who knows you from the inside out and the end from the beginning. Sometimes, what we think is right, isn’t. Sometimes the advice of others, as in the case of Job, might not always be the right way to go.
If we are prepared to surrender our difficulties to God, then we should be prepared for him to give us hisanswer. God’s answer may not be revealed immediately, but it will always be revealed to us at the right time. It might not always be revealed to us dramatically, but instead perhaps by the slow dawning of conviction by the Spirit of God, or through the inspired counsel of another person. However he may choose to do it, God will always answer.
We should learn to pray in humility and submission to God’s will. God is able to answer back at any time and in any way he chooses. Are you ready for it?
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