Prayer Keeps Hope Alive

I believe God hears our prayers, and He answers every one of them–too often we don’t accept the answers He gives and we feel like He is not listening. At times such as these, all we can do is pray for understanding.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts … “(Isaiah 55:8-9).

Trust in God, and true belief that He can do anything is going to keep hope alive and keeps me in prayer for any situation. Even when the diagnosis is bleak, we know that God can step in at any time and perform a miracle, “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). But along with this hope we must also understand that God can take any of us home at any time. As David said: “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, ‘Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.’ ” (2 Samuel 12:22-23).

Our most important mission as followers of Christ is to hold fast to our faith. God designed each of us for a purpose and once that purpose is fulfilled and His will accomplished, then He will take us home where we will live on forever. God’s wish is that none should perish, and it still stands true today. We must always remember that God is in control, and believe that He will do whatever it takes to save as many people as possible from the inferno that lays ahead for sinners. Within the limits of our mortality, God offers endless chances for people to repent and return to Him, but sadly many will not return. Many will hear the Word and still not accept it–those are the lost, their lives will not be spared and the end will be a fiery death.

Like a marriage, our spiritual walk is “until death do us part, through sickness and in health.” We must accept Jesus Christ and believe that The Holy Spirit is sent from Him as a gift from God to protect us and give us the confidence we need, even when faced with sickness, disease, or even death. Such confidence allows us to hold fast even through the most trying times, and our own lives become a witness to the power we have in Christ. It’s that confidence that even when we feel God is not listening, we realize He is still in control and many people will be saved because of our faith, which brings us to this glorious end:

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

With God there is always hope.

What kind of prayer life do you live?