Acts 10:30-33 – Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me 31 and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”
When we need to hear from God, pray. Cornelius daily sought God. He cried out to God like his heart, his mind and his sanity depended on it. He was an officer in the Roman army, commanding one hundred men. He had a family who loved and respected him, and he was a man of influence among his friends (obvious from his crowded house). He did not know God, but oh he wanted to. He had lived a life he hoped would please God. He took care of the poor. He gave them gifts. He made them feel loved and remembered. Don’t we all want that? This was a man who showed up with food at the doorstep of those who were hungry, sick and lonely. When people were praying to someone in the sky that they didn’t know, Cornelius, with his wife, or children, showed up to help and let them know that the God they pleaded to, that he also did not personally know, was hearing them. He reminded them to not lose hope. How many times had Cornelius called out God! After hundreds or thousands of prayers, maybe tens of thousands, when it felt hopeless and when he felt frustrated, he continued to rebuff frustration and hopelessness and refused to not believe in a God who was good and loving and did not create man for no reason, but had a purpose. This man searched out for one true God among his people who had no idea who the one true God was. They didn’t even have a street preacher holding up, or shouting out, verses from a bible. It was easy for people to live in hopelessness of never finding the truth. But this kind and good man did not listen to the naysayers. He cared not about those who mocked his faith as he walked away. Cornelius wanted with all his heart and with all his mind to know God.
God was hearing his prayers. In fact, God was the one who saw a heart, so disheveled from living in a filthy world, yet a heart that would respond. It was God who touched his heart and God who drew him in. He has done that for all of us who call ourselves by the name of Jesus Christ. Cornelius did not give up and the day came when a plan that God had already worked out, though unbeknown to Cornelius, was revealed to him. The loving and good God, with a plan for his soft and seeking heart, sent an angel from heaven to send for one of His own to light a candle in the heart of this desperate-for-God man. The day, the best day of his life was about to happen. God was about to lovingly move into his heart. And not only his, but also the hearts of his family and friends. Yes, God heard every prayer and true to Cornelius’ belief about Him, God had a plan.
Family, when we call out to our God, and we are tempted to think that praying is of no use, we must know that praying is exactly what we should be doing. Let our hearts and minds be humble and continue, for as long as it takes, to call out to God. He always, yes always, answers. We must remember that God answers in ways that should please us most. Some may say that God didn’t hear their prayer and so a parent, or a child, died. We must remember that God knows what we most want for the sick loved one. We want the best for them. We want them to have fulfillment, love and happiness. Then they die and we don’t stop to consider that God took them home to spare them from love and suffering (Isaiah 57:1). We may become angry because we no longer have the loved one with us. Yet who has loved the loved one more? Us who selfishly want the loved one with us, or God who knows that the best for the loved one is to be spared evil and to live in beauty, peace and satisfaction. Let us trust God more than self. Let us pray to God and trust that He is good and loving and that He has a plan. God is hearing our prayers. All of them. And because we know beyond any doubt or imagination that He is good and that He loves us, we also know that God is answering our prayer and we can have peace in our heart from the moment the prayer is prayed. He needn’t prove it to us (though sometimes He will). Because of His Word, because of His Spirit bringing His Word alive to us, we can know beyond feelings that God is always and forever good and loving to us. So when prayers seem like they fell from our lips like a leaf from a tree to die on the ground, let us not trust feelings, but rely on the Word of God. It is always true. God is good, and loving, and He does have plan. Always pray and always know that God will answer our anguished prayers at the right time, and the right way, that will satisfy the love we pray them with, even when we don’t understand. Why, because He is always good and He always loves. Always He is and always He does. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.