The Lodestar

It is painful to live with unanswered prayers. First, we are unsure if God has heard our prayers; second, we may think God has ignored them.

The psalmist’s enemies misquote, misrepresent, and spy on him to find fault with him. “They are always twisting what I say; they spend their days plotting to harm me. They come together to spy on me—watching my every step, eager to kill me” (Psalms 56:5—7, NLT).

These complaints from the ancient psalmist are a daily reality for everyone in the 21st century. We all experience them in our family, neighbourhood, workplace, and even Christian fellowships.

We may expect God to stop our enemies on the track, annihilate them, or let them change their ways. But God may not act on our suggestions to relieve the pain that our opponents have caused, leading us to think that God has ignored our prayers.

Yet, the psalmist prays with unwavering confidence, knowing God has not ignored his prayers. He is sure that God will act, not according to our timeline, but in his perfect time. This steadfast faith in God’s timing is a source of hope and patience for us all.

Using two images, he shows his confidence. The first is the imagery of the bottle of tears. All those tears we shed over the shame, guilt, embarrassment, and you name it, God has not overlooked but has collected every drop of tears in a bottle to remind him to act on our behalf. It is like tying a knot on your finger to remind you of things to do. The metaphor of the “tear bottle” suggests that our pain is precious to God. The tears we shed in the presence of God might have fallen on the prayer mat and evaporated. But God collected each drop of our tears before it dried up on the prayer mat.

The second image is of a record book. It assures us that God keeps a notebook to note down things to do, as we enter “things to do” in a notebook or an app with a specific date and time to act.

To avoid anxiety over unanswered prayers, we must be confident that God’s ears are attentive to our sobs and tears and that he has noted them. We can count on him to act. Remember, God’s timing is perfect, and he is always attentive to our prayers, even when it may not seem like it.

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