He Answered Them!

"Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name.
They called upon the Lord, and He answered them. . . .
You answered them, O Lord our God."
Ps. 99:6, 8a

When I read this, these words seemed to leap off the page at me. God answered them! And they were people just like us! This means that God is a God who can be called upon! Oh, the thought of it! What a great and wonderful thing!

James encouraged the saints to consider this wonderful truth about our God when he wrote this: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man subject to passions similar to ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the space of about three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

Do you need a job? Do you need a friend? Do you need healing? Do you need wisdom from God? Call upon the Lord, "for He cares for you." Jesus said that we do not need to talk a lot when we talk to God, pointing out that some people think that they were gain a hearing with God because they throw a lot of words up at Him (Mt. 6:7). Then he said, "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him." And He will answer! He is listening. He cares. He knows. And He will be your friend. He will even answer the prayer you don’t know how to pray. He will even help you pray it!

"For we know not how to pray as we ought,

but the spirit itself makes intercession for us . . . according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27).

Moses, Aaron, Samuel, and many others believed God was listening and that he cared, and that He was more than able to take care of them. The result? They prayed. And because they believed God and trusted in Him, He answered them. Everything in the Bible consistently proclaims that those righteous people were people just like us, and that God is the same to all generations.

That understanding, that feeling of joy and faith, is really what leaped off the page at me today. I believe I was being invited to ask, to seek, and to knock, and that I was being given a promise that God would answer me, too!