Finding God’s Grace in Our Suffering by Katie FarisCampione

One of my first questions after my children’s diagnosis was, “How do I pray for them?” Sometimes we can be so focused on dramatic displays of God’s power that we gloss over the astounding truth that God hears and responds to the humble pleas of his people. We read and remember the lions’ closed mouths in the book of Daniel, but we forget Daniel’s daily prayers. When we do, we miss the opportunity to reflect on the truth that God hears and answers our prayers too. God hears our prayers for forgiveness. Our pleas for mercy. Our long prayers, but also our short ones: “Lord, do something.” But if God hears us, why doesn’t he do something—something we can see and feel and touch—right now? In Daniel 9, we discover that Daniel didn’t always get a response to his prayers right away either. After receiving a troubling vision, Daniel begins a spiritually intense period of mourning and fasting that lasts for three whole weeks. It’s only at the end of those three weeks that another heavenly messenger appears to give him an answer: “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me” (Daniel 10:12-13, emphasis mine). Just as in chapter 9, Daniel is reassured that “from the first day ... your words have been heard.” But now, despite God hearing and sending a timely response to Daniel’s prayer, there was a cosmic delay. It wasn’t because God didn’t hear or send an answer, and God’s love for Daniel remained unchanged. Friends, the same sovereign, merciful God hears your prayers. All of them. His answer might not come when or how you might expect; don’t let that persuade you to doubt that he has heard you. Reflection Questions: 1. What stories of answered prayer can you look back on and be encouraged by? 2. Take John 16:24 to heart and spend some time, right now, praying in Jesus’ name.