‘For 17 years now . . . .” Thinking about my journey with prayer
By Dean Collins
I use the You Version Bible app every day. I have used it as my primary Bible-reading tool for more than a decade now. It helps me stay on my reading plan and makes it easy to cut and paste Scriptures into my daily devotional work.
In the past, I would occasionally use it to guide my prayer time, too. It has a feature allowing you to write prayers, save them, and update them when you see an answer. About four months ago I started coordinating the prayer list I keep into the Bible refresh so that everything is in one place.
Over the last four months the app has resurfaced prayers from weeks, months, and even a few years ago. I have joyfully watched and thanked God for many answered prayers. I have also noticed that some of my prayers include acknowledgment and even lament over difficulties and suffering that has lasted for what feels like far too long.
In early January I wrote a prayer that began, “For 17 years now….” Seventeen years is a long time. And I continue to pray that prayer often. My guess is that you may have prayers you have prayed for that long or even for 20, 30, or 40 years or more. But we continue to pray because we know God hears and answers our prayers. And we can all give examples of God’s answered prayers.
‘Make us glad’
As I read Psalm 90 today, I made note of this line: “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.” The psalmist records many ups and downs in this psalm. It is attributed to Moses.
Moses had three 40-year seasons in his life, each bringing times of joy and times of suffering. I am no math wizard, but 40 is longer than 17, and 120 is longer than 40. Assuming Moses is the author of this psalm, I suspect he wrote it sometime late in life while still in the wilderness. We know from Scripture that he was only able to look over the mountain to the Promised Land but in his life on earth never had a chance to feel the soil of the promise under his feet.
Untold blessing
I imagine if we could speak to Moses today and read this psalm back to him, he might grin or even laugh joyously at some of his poetry. It has been a few thousand years since Moses last suffered, so I imagine his joyous laughter might reach the throne of God as praise that God did in fact answer all of his prayers.
I don’t know if next year I will pray, “For 18 years I have prayed . . . ,” but I am confident that whatever suffering and difficulty come on this side of our prayers, we can be sure our diligence in prayer will bring untold blessing—and not for a minute but for an eternity!
Whatever your suffering or lament is today, take it to the Lord. Take it to him as long as you have breath, knowing that as we pray diligently, God will not only bless us for eternity but he will in the meantime establish the work of our hands over and over again!
Your time with God’s Word
Psalm 90:14-17 ESV
Photo by Marwan Ahmed on Unsplash
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