A prayer He always answers

Experience has taught me that one specific prayer will always be answered. In fact, I’ve learned that when I pray it, I’d better duck.

The prayer is in line with the heart of God and His mission for my life. It is a prayer that expresses trust in Him (I’d seldom trust anyone else with this request), and requires a humble and contrite spirit, which God loves.

This prayer is at the end of Psalm 139, and goes like this: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

The psalmist says earlier that only God knows the human heart. He says, You are “acquainted with all my ways.”

He also says that God understands our thoughts, knows what I will say before I say it, and sees every move that I make. Who better to reveal and heal the messed up places in my life, including those areas where I am anxious?

I’m reading an excellent little book by John Piper called Battling Unbelief. This rather ominous title is contrasted by its sub-title: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure. Piper’s first chapter is about anxiety. He tells of his own fear of speaking in public, which, in the U.S.A. is rated a greater fear than that of dying. His anxiety about speaking in front of even a small group of people nearly paralyzed him. Overcoming it meant allowing God to search him, then lead him out of it.

I was particularly enlightened by a section that pointed out the attitudes of mind and actions that grow from being anxious. Anxiety about money can give rise to coveting, greed, hoarding, stealing. Anxiety about success can make me irritable, abrupt, surly, thoughtless toward others. Anxiety about relationships can send me into withdrawal, indifference, or being pushy. The list could go on. No wonder God says, “Be anxious about nothing . . .” since this form of unbelief leads to a host of other sins.

I haven’t finished the chapter nor read Piper’s thoughts on conquering anxiety, but I do know some of what God says. For instance, “Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you” and “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” and "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. . . ."

The premise in Piper’s book is that instead of trusting some lie that never delivers, I must put my faith in the promises of God. They might be for the future and not happen right now, but His “future grace” is just as sufficient as His present grace that brought me into His kingdom. In other words, if God says He will do something, I can rest in that even when it hasn’t happened yet.

However, sometimes I am anxious, mostly about the not-yet-happened salvation of those I love. I can find no absolutes that tell me God will answer my prayers about them. He is “not willing anyone should perish”, but many do. Will those I pray for perish? Or will God, in mercy, draw them into His kingdom?

When I asked about this anxiety this morning, then opened my Bible, God spoke to me from Psalm 139. He tells me He knows all about me, and that I must to ask Him to also “know my anxieties” implying that I be willing for Him to expose and root them out, then lead me from worry into the way everlasting.

The "way everlasting" speaks of the path of those who believe. It is a way of life, a walk with God, confident steps toward a sure and certain future. A person who knows God, who has experienced the power of His saving grace from a deep darkness, should also trust Him to do the same for others who are in darkness.

But what if He doesn’t?

That is an anxiety. If those I love never hear or respond to the call of God, will I trip and stumble in the way? Or can I still say, “Yet will I trust Him?”