Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

 March 29– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“I called him, but he gave me no answer.” 

—Song of Solomon 5:6

Prayer sometimes waits like a petitioner at the gate until the King comes forth to grant the petitions requested with his blessing and action. The Lord, when he has given great faith, has been known to try it by long delays. He has allowed his servants’ voices to echo in their ears as if they were speaking to a hardened sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, “You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.”

True saints have waited patiently on the Lord without reply, not because their prayers were not fervent or because they were unaccepted but because it so pleased the Sovereign King, who acts according to his own pleasure. If it pleases him to exercise our patience, is that not his right? Beggars must not be choosers when it comes to time or place or form. We must never mistake delays for denials. God will pay out full dividends to those who have made the investment of prayer; his bonds will mature at the right time.

We must not allow Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. Unanswered petitions are not unheard. They are not blown away by the wind but are treasured in the King’s archives. This is a registry in the court of heaven where every prayer is recorded.

Tried believer, your Lord has a tear-bottle in which the costly drops of sacred grief are put away and a book in which your holy groanings are numbered. In time, your legal suit will prevail. Can you not be content to wait a little? Will not your Lord’s timing be better than yours? At the right time, he will comfortably appear, and you will exchange the sackcloth and ashes of long waiting for the scarlet and fine linen of fulfilled joy. [M&E]