Last month’s post, Hope and a Future, focussed on the hope event. But there’s another hope that feeds restful living: the hope of an answer.

For many years, I lived in a country where the everyday cultural association of their word for prayer is ‘to wish for something’. They hope the wish will come true, but there’s no certainty. It depends on, among other things, the person’s karma.

That’s quite different from the follower of Jesus praying with the hope of an answer.

We believe that our asking must line up with God’s will (my earlier post, Can we ask WHATEVER?). Knowing that it does, gives us confidence that he has heard, and a bold assurance that we have what we asked of him (1 John 5:14,15, John 14:13,14). This often takes us into ‘waiting in the mystery’ – knowing we have God’s answer, but not yet seeing it.

There is no uncertainty in the blessed hope (our hope of the Lord’s return). We confidently wait for his appearance, because he promised it (Tit 2:13). It’s not a passive, moved-to-the-back-burner wait, but an eager expectation that is greeting the coming Lord before his arrival.

Likewise, our hope of an answer to prayer is not an uncertain wish. We wait for it with an expectation rooted in what the Lord tells us about himself, his desires, and his faithful love towards us. We greet the answer before its arrival.

We ask with thanks (Phil 4:6), usually not because we immediately see the answer, but because we have the firm hope of one.

The outworking of the answer might not come in the form or time-frame we expect. But our confidence isn’t in our ability to anticipate the how and when of the answer, but in our loving Father’s wisdom to unpack it in the best way and at the right time.

Our hope of an answer isn’t dependent on whether we deserve one. And, thankfully, we don’t pray to a god who can’t hear, isn’t listening, or who makes erratic decisions that leave us confused about what pleases him.

Psalms 42 & 43 give us examples of the hope of an answer. The sons of Korah wrote them during David’s exile in the wilderness east of the Jordan, when he fled during Absalom’s rebellion.

The songs capture David’s lament and longing. They sing of what he misses most: worshipping the Lord before the Ark of the Covenant. So, he asks God to bring him back to Zion (Ps 42:1-4, Ps 43:3-4).

That’s the background to the repeated refrain: Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. (Ps 42:5, 11, Ps 43:5).

David doesn’t deny his difficult circumstances, but challenges his own response to them: Why are you downcast? He points himself to a better way: Put your hope in God.

He isn’t speaking of the hope event (see my previous post), but of his hope of God’s answer to his prayer.

David knows that his request pleases the Lord. It lines up with God’s promise about his future (2 Sam 7:12-16). His on-target asking doesn’t guarantee an immediate response from God, but it gives David the hope of an answer. And with that, he steers his heavy heart into restfulness.

Our prayer life, by design, engages with the world’s turbulence, but isn’t shaken by it. The Lord makes it possible for us to have conversations with him about trouble (our own or someone else’s), and yet be at rest.

Focus on a particular prayer need.

• What type of answer are you trusting the Lord for – healing, provision, reconciliation, mission breakthrough, revival…?
• Draw in relevant scriptures – a promise, principle, teaching, truth about the Lord, or a Bible narrative – passages that confirm the Lord’s desire to answer that need.
• Anchor your asking point to those scriptures. As you shape the request to agree with the Lord, the hope of an answer (the assurance that we have what we asked of him) will strengthen. And as it does, so too will your inner rest regarding the need.

If we have the hope of an answer, should we keep asking? In the video version, I’ll include some thoughts on when to persevere, and why it’s good to have a lament lead-in to our asking. I’ll post a notice once the video is uploaded to the Prayer Life Wingspan channel.