Have you ever had one of those days when you had a very important phone call to make and you received a “voice mail” machine answer that after a brief recorded message you were put on hold … then you got the run around … put back on hold … seemingly ad infinitum until you got a real live person to talk to? I’m sure you have. I did this morning.

As a friend of mine suggested, “What if when we called on God in prayer we got the following answer: ‘Thank you for calling Heaven. Your prayer is very important to us. Please stay on the line and your prayer will be answered in the order it was received. Or, if you would like to leave a prayer request, press ’2′, and after the sound of the harp state your message clearly, the date and time of your call, your prayer-phone number, and we will reply to you as soon as it is convenient. Have a ‘God’ day!’”

Thank God it isn’t so. As God’s Word says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: 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 what we asked of him.”²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you are always available to all who call on you—to all who are sincere and call on you in truth—and that you always hear and answer these prayers. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

2. 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV).