On #writerwednesday, I wanted to share the behind the scenes of my morning. While I would be lying to say I write a devotional every single morning, my time with God is precious. God’s gift to me of writing is more than just for fictional characters. It’s anchored and written from the foundation of the Word. While fictional stories are great and I love writing them, the Word is what saves. I also have been preparing for my women’s bible study tomorrow and prayer has been on my heart along with the lingering question:

Is prayer enough?

It’s the question that I’ve been wrestling with lately when some prayers are answered that feel easier than others. The ones that are bolder, more difficult – I wonder if those will ever get answered.

The threat in Isaiah 36 is intense, nearly to the point where the field commander makes great half-truths to try to persuade the people not to trust in God. He’s right on some counts – which is how the enemy lies to us today and tells us our prayers are futile and we should surrender to him. He tells the Israelites that he’s never been defeated – historically up until that moment he hasn’t. He twists the altars being torn down too. Those were torn down to worship God only.

I’ve been praying for something and someone for nearly two years, awaiting God’s answer. I don’t truthfully know what God is going to do. That’s how prayer is sometimes. I get a gist or wind of the spirit convicting me and I go forward, unknowing. And lately, my prayer life has been very miniscule in my opinion. I still speak to God but I am not as trusting as I want nor hope to be. The field commander has sent me this same letter.

He’s told me half-truths and mainly he’s told me that my circumstances, just like the Israelites, is too dire for God to deliver me. That not only God sent these circumstances into my life but God doesn’t intend to rescue me from them.

I would want to go on to Isaiah 37 knowing that Hezekiah tears his robes, humbles himself, and God delivers the Israelites with an angel that kills all those troops. But a piece of me felt like most of prayer is not spent in the answer at all. It’s spent in the wondering, the wrestling, and the earnest feeling that if God doesn’t come through then the situation will end in death. That’s why I hate when people say “I’m in a waiting season for xyz”.

Life is a waiting room in many regards if we truly are dependent on God. God’s timetable is very different than our own. He may put plans in our hearts but he is the one who establishes our steps (Proverbs 16).

As I sat longer in Isaiah 36, I wondered how those Israelites felt during this siege, surrounded by the enemy. Were they terrified? Did they lose hope? Many times we don’t want to admit that we feel those same things. We want to be so prideful to say that we are relying fully on God in prayer knowing he’ll come through. But what about when we pray and we aren’t sure? Does that negate what God will deliver us from? It makes me think of the furnace of fire for the three brothers who wouldn’t bow to the idol or the lion’s den where God shuts the lions’ mouth. Those men didn’t know they would be delivered. We also may not know.

In those fiery trials or sealed doors, we must thrust all our cares and our hope and our trust in God’s character.

God never fails. He always comes through and delivers us – it just may not be in the way we expect. And in that discomfort, God is creating something new within us to sanctify us for heaven and for his ultimate purposes.

It’s a deep and usually uncomfortable truth we live with daily. We are not in control of our lives. God is. God created us to worship him and anything else we rely on or trust in in his place will ultimately fail us. That’s why God rescued the Israelites. It wasn’t because of a threat. It was because they tore their robes and humbled themselves before God, depending on him alone.

So is prayer enough?

Prayer is the only thing.

And if you take anything from today and from Isaiah 36, I hope it’s that God not only will deliver you, in Jesus, you already have been saved from death and brought to new life. Your prayers aren’t just whispers into heaven that get trapped in a void. God answers and when he does, he puts the enemy to shame. If there is a field commander knocking at the door, I pray whatever letter he’s written to you about your life, that you anchor yourself in God’s truth: that He’s mighty to save.

“For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.” Psalm 84:11-12

I pray as you go about your day and your week that you remember that God desires you to trust in Him not just in thoughts or words, but in action. Love and trust are found in our actions. I pray that you see that prayer is also an action guiding us to trust deeply in our God. I pray that you see how much He loves you and will deliver you from every evil. In Jesus name, Amen.