As for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7)

Waiting for the answer to prayer is not the whole of waiting, but only a part-and a very important one. When we have special petitions, in connection with which we are waiting on God, our waiting must be very definitely in the confident assurance, “My God will hear me.”

A holy, joyful expectancy is of the very essence of true waiting. This is true not only in reference to the many varied requests every believer has to make, but most especially to the one great petition high ought to be the chief thing every heart seeks for itself-that the life of God in the soul may have full sway, that Christ may be fully formed within, and that we may be filled to all the fullness of God.

This is what God has promised. This is what God’s people too little seek, very often because they do not believe it possible. This is what we ought to seek and dare to expect, because God is able and waiting to work it in us.

Just notice how the threefold use of the name of God in out text points us to Himself as the one from whom alone is our expectation. “I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.”(Micah 7:7) Everything that is salvation, everything that is good and holy, must be the direct, mighty work of God Himself within us.

In every moment of a life in the will of God, there must be the immediate operation of God. And the one thing I have to do is this; to look to the Lord, to wait for the God of my salvation, to hold fast the confident assurance, “my God will hear me.”

Andrew Murray

The very question that we often ask is whether God hears us. It is the question we hear asked many times by the characters in the Bible and it is not a rare question. Most of us believe that there is nothing that God can’t do but our question is whether He hears our request and whether He will do something about our situation.

Job knew that God was able to deliver him from his distress but his question was, “God are you aware and listening to my petition?”

“Yes, I know it is true. But how can a mortal man be right before God? “If one should want to contend or dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a thousand times. “ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; Who has [ever] defied or challenged Him and remained unharmed? “Behold, He passes by me, and I do not see Him; He moves past me, but I do not perceive Him. “Behold, He snatches away; who can restrain or turn Him back? Who will say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’ “How can I answer Him [and plead my case], Choosing my words [to reason] with Him? For though I were righteous, I could not answer. I must appeal for mercy to my Opponent and Judge. “If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.

Job 9:2-4,11-12,14-16

As Job was sitting in the ash heap, covered with boils, having lost all his children and possessions and to a large degree his wife, he cries out to be heard by God. Many of us can relate to this place. We have brought our needs and desires before God and the heavens are silent and we wonder if God hears us. We even express this with things like, “I wonder if my prayers even got off the ceiling?” “Why would God listen to someone like me?” Does God even listen to a sinful persons prayers?

As we continue to read the book of Job we find the glorious answer. God indeed does hear and does answer our cries to Him even when we don’t even know the words to say that expresses our desires.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel [questioning my authority and wisdom] By words without knowledge? “Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!

Job 38:1-3

In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes [before God] on behalf of God’s people in accordance with God’s will.

Romans 8:26-27

Finally I offer these promises of God to hear and answer us:

Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you.

Jeremiah 29:12

O You who hear prayer, To You all mankind comes.

Psalm 65:2

“He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.

Psalm 91:15

“ For the eyes of the Lord are [looking favorably] upon the righteous (the upright), And His ears are attentive to their prayer (eager to answer), But the face of the Lord is against those who practice evil.”

1 Peter 3:12

And if we know [for a fact, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.

1 John 5:15

So let us come to the Lord with confident expectancy that He hears us when we bring our burdens, anxieties, fears, needs, and desires. And He will answer. In the words of an old song:

Let us have a little talk with Jesus,

Let us tell Him all about our trouble

He will hear our faintest cry

And He will answer by and by.

Dr. John Thompson