Can I Call You Right Back?
By Joan Walker Hahn
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. Psalm 27:7 NIV
One day as I was just leaving work, my daughter called me. She had not gotten but a couple of sentences out of her mouth when I heard my phone beep. I looked at the screen and noticed it was a coworker and I knew I needed to take the call. So I told Martha that I would call her back and I took the incoming phone call.
When I did call my daughter back, I apologized for hanging up on her. She said that it was only the third time that it had happened to her that same day. Two earlier times during the day when she had been on the phone with someone, they had asked her the same thing, “Can I call you right back?”
She told me the thought had come to her when I hung up, that she was so glad that when she went to God in prayer, He didn’t say, “Can I call you right back?”
That is one of the amazing assurances we have with our Lord. We don’t have to wait for Him to pick up the phone. We never get a busy signal or a dropped call. And He never says, “Can I call you right back?”
David often cried out in his Psalms for God to hear him. David knew without a doubt that God not only heard him, but would act on his behalf. Here are two verses I like:
Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on meand hear my prayer. Psalm 4:1 NIV
I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. Psalm 17:6 NIV
And this verse in the New Testament also gives us assurance:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14 NIV
But what about us?
How often does God try to speak to us and we hang up on Him? How often do we simply ignore His call? How often is the connection really bad due to sin in our lives we refuse to let go of? David also knew that if he had sin in his heart that God would not hear. Psalm 66:18
The Prophet Isaiah stated it this way to the wayward Children of Israel:
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV
And from the words of Christ Himself:
Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. John 8:47 NIV
I agree totally with Martha. It’s wonderful knowing that because we have accepted Christ as our Savior, there is never a moment when Christ will not hear us calling out to Him. And just like David, may we be faithful to praise Him for hearing us and may we be faithful to tell everyone about it.
Heavenly Father, I want to praise Your name and thank You for hearing my prayer. It’s an awesome thought knowing that whenever I cry out to You, my cries don’t fall on deaf ears, and that You are never too busy for me! May I be faithful like David in proclaiming this wondrous truth:
Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! Psalm 66:16-20 NIV
Thank You, Father! In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.
For more encouragement, visit Joan at http://joanwalkerhahn.com/.
© 2018 by Joan Walker Hahn. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Tuesday, 14 November 2023.
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