We are in Psalms and today we are on Psalm 12. Psalm 12 is an answered prayer. David starts the psalm by crying out to God, and then God responds. Do you believe that your prayers are heard? This is so essential to believe when it comes to our relationship with God. When we don’t see God respond right away or in the way that we want him to, it’s easy to think that God’s not really listening. We might even go so far as to think that God doesn’t really exist. This is a very human struggle.

I know there are plenty of times when I wonder why God is taking so long to answer a request. I hear things about God loving me so much and just wanting to have a relationship me, but sometimes it feels hard to believe. One of the things that I have to remind myself continually is that my brain is very limited. Just because I don’t see God moving all the time or because I don’t agree with what he does or doesn’t do, doesn’t mean that I have a theological crisis on my hands. It just means that the strength of my faith must greatly exceed the strength and depth of my understanding.

One of the most essential things that we must believe about God if we are going to have a relationship with him is that he is good. If we don’t believe that his heart is good, we just can’t continue in the Christian life. We have to be able to believe that behind all our misunderstandings and unanswered questions, that the One who is in charge of the universe has our best intentions at heart. Sometimes I struggle with this. I have a certain definition of love in my head, and when God’s love towards me doesn’t jive with what I believe love is, there is tension. This prayer sounds something like, “God, if you loved me, you would…” I’m sure we can all fill in that blank with something.

This is why faith is so important. Do you believe that God’s heart is good? Do you believe he has your best intentions at heart? Maybe it’s time to have some honest conversation with God and begin getting to the bottom of these questions.