Quickie Prayers

 

“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

—Isaiah 65:24

Have you ever wished that God would answer your prayers while you are still speaking to Him? The verse at the top of this devotional blog post speaks of the way God will answer prayer in the New Heaven and New Earth. Yet, God can and does do that kind of immediate answering in the here and now, too.

In Nehemiah 1 and 2, we read how Nehemiah, while in exile with God’s people in Persia, had heard about the condition of the walls of Jerusalem. He wept and prayed and fasted for days. In fact, he spent four months praying about this situation, and asking God to give him favor with the king. You see, Nehemiah was cup bearer to the king and daily served him. After the four months of praying, one day Nehemiah took wine to the king.

The king noticed Nehemiah’s downcast expression and inquired what caused it. In Nehemiah 2:4, we read:

The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king…

Nehemiah had specific requests of the king. Among them, he asked the king for permission that Nehemiah might return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. To every request, the king “was pleased” to comply. Amazing!

How did it happen that so large a request prayed in so short a time came about so quickly? I think the answer lies, not in the power of a quickie prayer, but in the fact that Nehemiah had done his homework. Painfully, over many days and weeks, he prayed and wept, and searched for God’s will in this matter. The urgency with which he prayed and the exact details that came to pass, show us the reason that God answered so quickly.

In the New Testament story of the death of Lazarus, we read in John 11 that after Lazarus had already died, Jesus came to Mary. John 11:32 tells us:

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Little did she know that Jesus would raise Lazarus from the grave, and answer her prayers in a way she couldn’t possibly have anticipated.

This was the same Mary, criticized by her sister Martha, who sat at Jesus feet when He came to her house. She desired the place where she could hear Him and learn from Him. She considered nothing more important than that.

I like what Matthew Henry, the Puritan writer said about this:

Those that in a day of peace place themselves at Christ’s feet, to receive instructions from him, may with comfort and confidence in a day of trouble cast themselves at his feet with hope to find favor with him. ¹

In Psalm 119:145-147, the psalmist seems to be praying short prayers of desperation:

I call with all my heart; answer me,…I call out to you; save me…I rise before dawn and cry for help.

Of these prayers, Dr. James Montgomery Boice says:

In the Hebrew text, as well as in English, the petitions “answer me” and “save me” are short, staccato utterances, which are appropriate for one who is in trouble and earnestly seeking help. ²

Dr. Boice uses as an illustration the story of Peter on the stormy Sea of Galilee. Peter had walked alongside Jesus in His earthly ministry and had numerous long conversations with His Savior. But, the night Peter found himself on lake in the wind and rain, Matthew 14:30 records him as saying:

“Lord, save me!”

Now that’s a quickie prayer!

Who then stands in the best position to have quickie prayers answered? Those who have done the work of labored prayer in the secret place, sitting at Jesus’ feet to learn from Him so that the requests they make can reasonably be answered by their Lord.

If you have prayed and prayed over a burden you carry, you can rest assured that not only does the Lord hear your prayer, but that He may arrange, in a day and time you may not expect, a response to a quickly breathed prayer that He will answer in a truly remarkable way.

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1 Henry, Matthew, Commentary on the Whole Bible. McLean, Virginia: MacDonald Publishing Company, Volume 5, p. 1053. (Now in the Public Domain.)

2 Boice, James Montgomery, Psalms: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. Volume 3, p. 1047.