May 17, 2024 When God Answers Our Prayer with Himself – Words of Grace – May 17, 2024
We often pray for the Lord to do things for us without expecting that the answer will call for anything from us. But the greatest answer to prayer is the Lord himself. And when he stands before us and says, “Here I am”, we are called to respond to him.
Isaiah 64, which was our sermon passage last Sunday, calls on God to rend the heavens and come down. Isaiah 65, our text for this Sunday, is the Lord telling us he has come down and he stands before us with open arms calling us to faith and faithfulness to him.
We are reminded of Jesus in the New Testament standing before crowds of people saying, “Come to me.” And we think of the times he spoke to individuals like Simon, Nicodemus, and the woman of Samaria saying, “Here I am, believe in me, and follow me.”
Isaiah’s prayer for the Lord to rend the heavens and come down was answered most fully in Jesus Christ. And Jesus stands today before men and women like you and me as Savior and Lord.
Sending Jesus Christ is the greatest thing God ever did for us. But Jesus is not an impersonal thing. He is not merely a solution to our current problem or a provision for our present need. Jesus is Lord.
When we pray to God for help, he sends us to Jesus. When we ask him for guidance, he says to follow Jesus. When we need provision, he shows us all we have in Jesus. Jesus is God’s answer to our prayers.
Prayer is personal. Prayer calls for engagement with God. God answers prayer according to his wisdom. We are the ones challenged, called, and changed in prayer. If we call on God in prayer, we need to get ready to get real with him and to hear him call us to respond in faith.
With Jesus standing before us as God’s answer to our prayers, the question is how will we respond to him?
This is the question we will ask ourselves this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you then.
-Scott