Waiting

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8 NIV)

Sometimes it is so difficult to keep the faith, especially when our prayers are seemingly not getting answered. We have sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but all the things we and our dependents need are not added. Day and night we have asked, sought, and knocked, but the doors are not opening. We have believed we would receive, but we have not. We have cast our cares on our Lord, but the cares remained unresolved and have snowballed. Out of desperation, we cried out to the Lord and looked up in expectation, but have received only silence. We have waited, perhaps for an extended period spanning years, and have now reached the end of the rope with no knot to tie or hang on. In earnest, we pray for God to answer our prayers and seek His grace and sufficiency to grant us the means to keep ourselves and our loved ones alive. 

Such a sense of helplessness and despair are probably not uncommon to some of us. The sons of Korah, like us, were also facing stressful times when they wrote in a maskil that their tears have been their food day and night. Their souls were in despair and they cried out to God, “Why have You forgotten me?” (Psalm 42:3, 5, 9).

Do we sometimes feel we have been forgotten or wonder why God takes such a long time to answer our prayers in spite of our earnest asking, seeking, and knocking day and night? Did not our Lord immediately reached out His hand and took hold of Peter when he cried out, “Lord, save me!”? Is it possible God’s silence means His answer is “No” when we ask Him to meet our basic needs and the needs of our dependents? Would a father give his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a snake for a fish, or a scorpion for an egg? (Matthew 7:7-11; 14:30-31; Luke 11:11-12).

During times of helplessness and despair, our response should be like that of the psalmist to long and thirst for God as the deer pants for streams of water. Believe the LORD to direct His unfailing love in the day and His song with us in the night. Hope in God for we will yet praise Him, our Savior and our God (Psalm 42:1-2, 8, 11).

Dear Lord, we are in desperate need of You to keep us and our loved ones living. We have waited for a long time, and we are now at our wits’ end as to how to go on from here. Give us this day our daily bread and supply to us all our needs. Grant us Your bountiful blessings that we might not have only tears for food day and night. Do not let our souls be downcast within us, but remind us of Your unfailing love. Direct us in the path we are to walk and place Your song within us, for we will yet praise You, our Savior and our God.