Can you hear me now?

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the cellular phone commercials that made this phrase popular. If you have ever owned a cell phone or used a cell phone in a rural area, you may have found yourself using the phrase as you move from spot to spot trying to gain reception. It can be immensely frustrating when you are trying to communicate something important and your call keeps being dropped.

I have to admit, sometimes I find myself asking God the same question. After days or weeks of unanswered prayers, it is easy to become discouraged and find yourself searching for a better connection. If God could hear me, why hasn't he answered me? 

Just a few weeks ago our little Noémi was born and following her birth I began to have very high blood pressure. The doctor assured me that within a few weeks or months, my blood pressure should return to it's normal level, but in the meantime I was placed on medication and told to "rest as much as you can." Well, any mother knows "rest" is virtually impossible with a newborn and two small children at home, but on the couch I lay. I felt pretty exhausted and miserable and when Jonathan had to travel away for a mission conference, I felt horribly discouraged. I was praying each day (many times a day) that God would heal me from the high blood pressure, so I could get back to a more normal activity level and to meet the needs of my family. But day after day, it seemed to creep higher and higher despite an increase in medication.

Jonathan called me on Saturday evening after the services at the mission conference and told me he had shared with the congregation about my health and they had anointed him in my absence. Hearing this gave me a bit of hope that maybe God would move in some fashion, but Sunday morning I woke up to even higher numbers. Sunday we also asked our small group at church to pray (incidentally, we have been doing a study on prayer in the group) and again I thought "Ok, God. Can you hear me now?" Monday came and went with no change. Tuesday morning was my scheduled check up with the doctor. When I arrived at the office, I was so surprised to hear my blood pressure was completely normal - Praise God!

It may seem like a small and insignificant answer to prayer to some people, but it was HUGE to me. Beginning that very day, I started to feel more like myself and was able to start returning to my normal routine. God answered everyone's prayers with a miracle in my life. I'm not sure why He chose to answer their prayers on a Tuesday morning at the doctors office instead of the many days before that I had knelt before Him at home, but I know that I was able to share this testimony with those others that prayed for my healing and it has been a great encouragement to everyone.

In thinking of the cell phone call, it occurred to me that some times I am on the other end of the line...I hear the other person emphatically repeating "Can you hear me now?" Often I am even responding "YES! I can hear you!" I realized that God is on the other end of the line telling me the same thing! I CAN HEAR YOU!!  I just have to trust He is there and He is listening.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)

Being heard,
Corinne