Jul 17th, 2023:
You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay your vows. Job 22:27
We pray different kinds of prayers to God in our times of need submitting our petitions and requests to him. We know that we have a faithful and a true God, a loving father who we can trust to fulfill us and satisfy us with goodness. But for God to answer our prayers, he lists out a pre-requisite that we should satisfy- to be righteous before him. ‘The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous’ (Pr 15:29) and ‘The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles’ (Ps 34:17). He tells us that his eyes are on the righteous and ears are attentive to their prayer, but his face against those who do evil (1 Pet 3:12). Thus, we first must ask God for forgiveness of our sins and live righteous lives by walking according to the Spirit.
There are some prayers that may take time to be answered, and as Micah points out, we should watch in hope for the Lord, and wait upon our Saviour, but we can be assured that he hears us (Mi 7:7). He is the God who created eyes and ears because he is the God who sees and hears (Psalm 94;9). We can be assured of our prayers reaching his ears.
The Bible instructs us to pay the vows that we make to the Lord when our prayers are answered. Just as we know Jacob from the patriarchs makes and vow to the Lord saying ‘If God will be with me and will keep me ….. then shall the Lord be my God” (Gen 28:21), and he goes on to keep it. We can make similar mature and godly vows to God and eventually keep them when he answers us.