You will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:12
When Pastor Timothy wears his preacher collar while traveling, he often gets stopped by strangers. “Pray for me, please,” people in the airport say when they see the clerical band atop his simple dark suit. On a recent flight, a woman knelt by his seat when she noticed him, pleading: “Are you a pastor? Would you pray for me?” And Pastor Timothy prayed.
A passage in Jeremiah sheds light on why we perceive that God hears and answers prayer: God cares! He assured His beloved but sinful, exiled people, “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you’ ” (29:11). God anticipated a time when they would return to Him. “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me,” He said, “and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (vv. 12-13).
The prophet learned this and more about prayer while confined to prison. God assured him, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (33:3).
Jesus also urges us to pray. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him,” He said (Matthew 6:8). So “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” in prayer (7:7). Every petition we make draws us closer to the one who answers. We don’t have to be a stranger to God in prayer. He knows us and wants to hear from us. We can take our concerns to Him right now.
How often do you pray? What will you say to God today?
Your care and knowledge of me inspire my prayers, dear God. Thank You for answering.
INSIGHT
Seventy years is a long time, but the faithful prophet Daniel lived to see the promise of God made through Jeremiah come true. Reading the book of Jeremiah’s prophecies, Daniel realized that the time for returning to Jerusalem was drawing close, and so he prayed that God would remember His promise and redeem His people (Daniel 9:1-3). God’s response was to give Daniel a picture of what He planned to do with and through His people in the future.
But God hadn’t forgotten His promise either. In the first year of his reign, the new Persian king, Cyrus, began returning the exiled Jews to their homeland (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). Daniel, who’d left for Babylon as a teenager (Daniel 1:6-7), was now an old man. He’d served wicked kings and not-so-wicked kings. Through it all, God protected him and the Jewish people, and the elderly prophet saw his prayer answered as God’s people returned home.