Get the Message?

Dan Kunz

I’m never less a fan of technology than when I text someone and don’t get an answer.  I’ve texted people and found out later (sometimes much later) they never got my text.  Lost in the universe somewhere?  I’ve texted people, gotten a response, carried on a dialogue, and then, for no apparent reason, they stop answering.  Car accident?  Heart attack?  The Rapture?  I’ve interacted with people over several days and they stop answering.  Ghosted?  I try calling and get a recording, repeatedly.  What did I do?  Did I offend someone without realizing it?  It’s frustrating to want or need to talk to someone and get no response.

Fortunately, we never have to worry about that with God.  When we reach out, we know he got the message.  We know he’s not ghosting us.  We know he’s not too busy right now.  We know he’s not on vacation where he doesn’t have “cell coverage’!  Now I admit God may not answer us immediately.  He may not answer us in the way we expect.  That does not mean he doesn’t hear or he doesn’t care.

Just as when I’m texting someone, I have to learn to have patience.  That’s tough for a variety of reasons.  Technology has made us very impatient.  We can literally have our questions answered via AI in a matter of milliseconds.  In an hour on the internet, we can find information it may have taken days or weeks to find in a library.  Imagine writing a letter to someone in another country.  It may take weeks for your letter to get there.  Then you must wait weeks for them to answer, again through the mail.  I have a friend who lives in Namibia, the country just west of South Africa.  I can text Boeta and I get an answer in moments, as if he is in the same building with me.  No wonder we’re so impatient.

1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  Did you catch that?  If we ask according to God’s will, we can have confidence he hears us.  We don’t have to wonder if he got the message.  We don’t have to worry that God is ghosting us.  We don’t have to be frustrated because we’re not sure he’s available.  God is our Father.  A perfect Father.  Not an earthly father who may or may not be able to answer.  When we ask according to his will, we know he hears us.  Now we must simply wait for his answer.  Because we know he loved us enough to sacrifice his own Son for our iniquities, we know is not only hears us, but will answer in the best way possible for us.  Not necessarily our answer, but the one which is best for us.  God’s cell coverage is unfailing – always.  Believe and be patient!