Before I Call, God Hears; Before I Pray, He Answers
Before I call, God hears. Before I pray, He answers.
And the best part? The part that brings achingly sweet joy?
He prepares me and gives me a calm heart.
Truly a mountain top experience.
“If you become weary of waiting for answers to your prayers,
remember that I also wait: so that I may be gracious to you and have mercy on you.
I wait till you are ready to receive the things I have lovingly prepared for you.
Blessed are all those who wait for Me—expectantly, longingly, trustingly.”
~Jesus Lives by Sarah Young, p. 260
“Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
and… that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for Him.”
~Isaiah 30:18 NKJV
“Before they call, I will answer,
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
~Isaiah 65:24 KJV
Before I call, God hears.
Young Christian Me:
“Wow, God, you gave her a mountain top experience.
She asked for a sign, and You showed her without a doubt what You wanted her to do.
Why her?
Why does she get to be so positive about her Christian peace and mission, and I don’t have a clue?
When will I be worthy of answers to my prayers?
Did You forget I was down here on this little farm trying to be a good Christian, praying and reading my Bible? Going to church and following Your teachings?
I thought You created us all equal, but I don’t seem to get the hang of understanding Your will for my life. Mostly, I guess, I’m just a failure. At everything I do.
But… please, please, could You hear me just this once?
Could You give me a wine press message? Or a fleece?
Well, I guess You don’t have anything important for me.
I’ll be a doorkeeper. A Jonathan, a humble friend to a king.
I’ll gladly brighten my little corner, if only I can live in the back room of someone’s mansion in Heaven someday.”
That was then.
Yep. That was my honest, yet naive, desire to please God as a young Christian.
Writing about it now makes me cringe. So much pride there. Self centered. Egocentric, in spite of longing to be in His will.
The road to where I am now has been long, muddling from one Pilgrim ditch to another.
Gaining a hill here, then slipping into slime there.
And, yet,
that young me had so many dreams.
Visions of doing great things for our awesome God.
Making it to the mountain top and planting my feet solidly, never to lose ground again.
This is now.
So today I look back, and realize
that I did have planted, solid feet
but not always on the mountain top.
The roots that grounded me were faith and hope, not accomplishment and spectacular answers to prayer.
And always
Always
God answered my prayers before I prayed them. Before I call, God hears.
I just had to catch up to Him.
Catch on to His ways. His love. So much higher and lovelier than ours.
While I was worrying and fretting
He was in the background
preparing my way;
leading me ever on to the end goal He has for me.
Not there yet. Still trudging. Still slipping. Always forward eventually.
Traveling Into The Unknown
Recently, during Covid and quarantining and self-isolating, I traveled to Canada.
My sisters were all traveling there, too. We had the same 40 acres as our goal. The large farm with 3 houses that my mother lived on 40 years ago.
Where now all 10 of her children would come together. While social distancing and staying in separate houses.
Our mother had recently passed, and those of us from away could not attend her funeral.
So we had a memorial for her.
And we all thanked God for bringing us together for this special time. Before I call, God hears.
We knew not all of us could have passed through borders and states and provinces without God placing His hand on the hearts of the powers that be.
We thanked Him over and over for His kindness in allowing us this opportunity.
Before I call, God hears.
I thought all the prayers had been answered by arriving to our destination and having this blessed time of remembering our mother.
But I didn’t know that I had the biggest hurdle of all still ahead of me.
I got on my flight from the city nearest the farm, and flew to Vancouver. Due to many canceled flights and fewer people flying, I had to spend the night there before going through customs so I could return home to Arizona.
And at the motel I logged in to get my boarding passes for the 2 flights the next day.
As a Canadian born citizen, I carry a Canadian passport and a Permanent US Resident card to prove I live in the US.
I’ve learned to check the expiration on my passport before I travel, but
I never thought to check the Resident card.
And it was expired.
I thought I would have a panic attack. Wouldn’t sleep a wink. I thought I’d chew my nails to the quick. Even though my nails are too hard to chew.
None of that happened.
I went onto our family chat and told them my dilemma, and I asked them to pray on Monday at noon and keep praying till I got through customs.
Then I ate some dinner, listened to a book, and fell asleep.
My husband messaged me just before I left the motel and asked if I was at the airport. Interpretation: get over there now if you’re not and get this thing rolling.
Yet I was calm.
I get to the United kiosk and she gives me my boarding passes, checks my passport, asks where I live. When I say Arizona she asks if I have a card. I give it to her. She looks at it. Then brings it up close to her eyes and squints. “This card is expired.”
Quietly, I look her in the eyes and ask, “Is it?”
“Yes,” she answers. “When you get home you need to apply for an extension while you wait for a new card.”
And she waves me to the security line.
After security I approach the customs kiosks. The gentleman notices my expired card, and asks me to go with him. He leads me to a door which he asks me to press a button and open. “Wait on these chairs until your name is called.” He takes my papers to a lady behind a desk.
I’m locked in with two teenage boys. They both aren’t panicking. A little sigh now and then. But not bad. Why they are in the airport “jail” I don’t know.
They get called up. They are let out of jail.
I am called up.
The kind lady says the same things to me that the check in lady said. Then she comes out from behind her desk and jingles her keys.
God had this all figured out before I even knew I needed to pray about it.
Before I call, God hears.
And the best part?
The part that made me throb with an achingly sweet joy?
He prepared me and gave me a calm heart.
Now isn’t that a mountain top experience?
