A Prayer

I waited patiently for the Lord; 

He inclined to me and heard my cry. 

Psalm 40.1

 Father,

You have promised Yourself to us and You have done that in so many different ways. You have told us that You will care for us as a good shepherd lovingly cares for his sheep. You have assured us that you will never leave us nor forsake us. You have made clear to us that when we are in need all we need do is to call upon You and that You will deliver us. You have given us many great and precious promises and we are grateful for all of them.

And yet, Father, there’s a problem. We have called upon You, we have mentioned some of those promises, reminding You of what You have told us. But nothing has happened. You have not kept Your promise. We know that You will keep Your promise, so we wait for that to happen. But, Father, waiting is hard.

What’s going on? When will You answer us? The situations that prompted our prayers are still there staring at us, confusing us, afflicting us. We hear the whispers of the evil one telling us that You have forgotten us. We are tempted to try to fix the problem ourselves, to depend on ourselves. And sometimes we listen to the lies and give in those temptations. Your Spirit points out this sin, and we feel so foolish, and we are so sorry. We do ask that You would forgive us our impatience with You – because that’s what it is: impatience.

It’s clear what needs to happen. We need to wait. We need to patiently wait for You to keep those promises. To do that Father means that we need to trust You. We need to trust Your wisdom and Your love. And that’s where Satan so often attacks. 

So, help us Father. Help us to be assured of Your wisdom and Your love, to be convinced that You know what You’re doing with our lives and that what You’re doing is good. Help us to feel secure in You, secure enough to patiently wait for You to keep Your promises to us.

Father, enable us to continue to hope in You.