When you pray, normally it is responsive. A crisis, a need, or a desire has erupted like molten lava, and our response to it has been to say, “Help!”[1] There is proactive prayer of a thoughtful variety, however most prayers are this other type of appeal: desperate or numb.[2]
When we pray in these desperate or numb ways, the request for God to answer our plight has a flickering confidence that he will act. Scripture emboldens confidence, and the Spirit fills us to trust him more.[3]
Often with an encouraged outlook, we don’t realize how much we need the help of the Holy Spirit. The comfort of the Scriptures gives us hope where there was little before. This confidence starts to pull us together and solidify us. As we trust in the Rock, we are stabilized, lagged into something else that is immovable. In this case, the immovable anchor is God himself.
Getting answers to prayer can be so painful. It’s no wonder we need strength to endure. If we didn’t have this reprieve of comfort or strength, the agony associated with the transition would be too much for us.[4] The answer to our prayer is often through the valley of the shadow of death. The presence of God in that valley is the answer to each prayer brought to full articulation. The “with-ness” of God with us becomes the point of all prayer.
Getting answers to prayer can be so painful. It’s no wonder we need strength to endure.
So, when we are desperate or numb, we pray. God supplies confidence, literally, faith combined with our plight’s appeal, and we draw near to God.[5] Confidence helps us practically to endure the pain that must come from even the most speedy and complete transitions. Moving from plight to relief has at least the pain of waiting for relief, and pain in the waiting. Thankfully, God supplies us in such a way that we can feel the pain, but we keep believing through it. Rather than being pointless, the pain is the platform to display God’s love. How else could a person stay steady despite eruptions?
Practically, when you are desperate or numb, you can call out to God for relief. He will strengthen you with his Word and Spirit. Recognize that his strengthening may be perfectly matched to the pain to be endured. God’s supply of confidence is enough for us to endure the crisis. Whether quick or slow, the answers will come despite the pain of change. Even if answers don’t come until we are beyond the grave, they will come, and we’ll no longer be desperate or numb.[6]
[1] “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.” Ps 119:147. KJV.
[2] “I sat appalled until the evening offering.” Ezra 9:4b. LSB.
[3] “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” Acts 9:31. ESV.
[4] “Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” Isa 49:13. KJV. See also, 2 Cor 1:4.
[5] Confidence: con + fide. “with faith.”
[6] “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Cor 13:12. KJV.
