My hope is not in answered prayer

it's bigger than that

We sang at church on Sunday, “I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered, that’s why I trust in him.”*

That’s not enough reason for me to trust him. At least not right now. The wound is too fresh and too deep. I sought the Lord. He didn’t answer. Maybe someday I can zoom out and see all the prayers he did answer for me, and have that be enough, but right now I can’t get around the one that he didn’t.

Thankfully, my trust in Jesus does not solely rely on seeing him answer prayer. Most of the people in God’s story did not see him answer their prayers.

The book of Hebrews talks about the heroes of faith in this way: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth (Hebrews 11:13).

They could trust God because they saw themselves in a bigger story — one that was intergenerational. They could see backwards and forwards on a much bigger timeline than just their own lifetime.

They could trust because they believed in what was unseen — spiritual forces outside of themselves and justice and peace they had never yet experienced.

It helps me to look backwards and forwards and through. The Bible talks about creation “groaning as in pains of childbirth” (Romans 8:22). God is making a new heaven and new earth that will be as surprising and enchanting as a baby experiencing life outside the womb for the first time.

Answered prayers are just a small glimpse into the eternal, global, and intergenerational world that Jesus is making new. The answered prayers we experience today are like the sound of a mama’s voice to a baby still inside the womb. It’s wonderful and comforting and real but still “distant.”

So my trust does not hinge on God answering prayer, especially not my prayer alone. Rather, when I do experience the sweetness of answered prayer, it reveals to me more of what the community of believers from generations past have been telling us about the goodness that is coming.

That’s why I can tell Jesus that those song lyrics sting, and our relationship doesn’t shatter. Though on some days, it really really stings.

*Elevation Worship. “Trust in God.” Can you Imagine?, 2023.