9-1-1 is a vital part of our emergency response system. A lady had just slipped into the back seat of her car to change a diaper on her baby when a carjacker jumped in the driver's seat and took off. Fortunately she had a cell phone, so she called 9-1-1 while the carjacker was driving her car through town. While she screamed at him to let her and the baby out, this gave the 9-1-1 dispatcher information he needed to direct the cops to their location, and they saved her. The dispatcher listened to the lady.
Well, Heaven has a very efficient 9-1-1 hotline, and listens when a child of God cries out for help. But does God always respond? I don't know how to explain why some good people suffer bad things, or why innocent children suffer from tragedies. If God permits a child of His to suffer injustice, even death, we remember there are some things worse than death.
But back to that 9-1-1 hotline to Heaven: let me ask a question. Wouldn't it make you feel happier when you pray in a sudden emergency if you have been in the habit of praying? If you have been sincerely listening to God all along? Following Christ, seeking to be on Heaven's side in the great controversy between Christ and Satan? I would not want to say that God does not hear a sudden prayer for help from someone who has been turning his back on Him all along, but to be honest, Proverbs 28:9 says, "He that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." And chapter 1:28-31 says that God has feelings of justice and righteousness. If we slap Him in the face continually, He is no grandfatherly Wimp: "Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer. .. They despised all my reproof." Even then, God is not playing tit-for-tat; He simply backs off and leaves them to "their own way, ... their own devices."
It's not a matter of cowering before God in fear. And it's not earning merit. Faith in God is really common decency, and the true motive for praying is not a sudden "Lord, get me out of this mess!" but a heart appreciation for His character, consistent, day by day. Faith is really identification with Him, at-one with Him, abiding in Him. "Have faith in God!"
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 3, 1999.Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
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