Lost prayers

In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me. — Psalm 86:7

The headline read: Unanswered Prayers: Letters to God Found Dumped in Ocean.

The letters, 300 in all and sent to a New Jersey minister, had been tossed in the ocean, most of them unopened. The minister was long dead. How the letters came to be floating in the surf off the New Jersey shore is a mystery.

The letters were addressed to the minister because he had promised to pray. Some of the letters asked for frivolous things; others were written by anguished spouses, children, or widows. They poured out their hearts to God, asking for help with relatives who were abusing drugs and alcohol, or spouses who were cheating on them. One asked God for a husband and father to love her child. The reporter concluded that all were “unanswered prayers.”

Not so! If those letter-writers cried out to God, He heard each one of them. Not one honest prayer is lost to His ears. “All my desire is before You,” David wrote in the midst of a deep personal crisis, “and my sighing is not hidden from You” (Ps. 38:9). David understood that we can cast all our cares on the Lord, even if no one else prays for us. He confidently concluded, “In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me” (86:7). — David Roper

 God has given you His promise

That He hears and answers prayer;

He will heed your supplication

If you cast on Him your care. — Bernstecher

READ: Psalm 86:1-7

Jesus hears our faintest cry.

The Bible in one year:

• Jeremiah 27-29

• Titus 3