Busy Signals

The other day I called someone and I got a busy signal. We don’t hear busy signals very often these days because everyone has some sort of call waiting. I waited a few minutes and then tried again. Again, I got a busy signal. I decided to drive over anyway. As I drove, I thought about busy signals and God.

Have you ever felt like God wasn’t hearing you when you pray? Maybe you felt like your prayers were just getting lost in space like a mis-addressed postcard. Or maybe you felt like all you were getting was heavenly voicemail. Or maybe God’s line was always busy. There are many places in scripture that tell us differently, one of which is this:

“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.” (1 John 5:14–15, NIV)

We know that he hears us. I may feel like my prayers aren’t getting through. But I know, by faith, that he does hear. So why don’t my feelings match up with my faith? Probably because I’m not getting the answer I want when I want it. I want what I want, and I want it when I want, which is usually right now.

Why don’t we get what we want when we want it? A full discussion will have to wait for another time. But the key to understanding is in that little phrase “according to his will”. Maybe what I want is not what he wants. Maybe when I want is not according to his will. May God is silent because he’s waiting for us to start praying according to his will and not our selfish will.

But what about God calling us. Is he getting the silent treatment? Is he getting a busy signal?

“All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations— a people who continually provoke me to my very face.” (Isaiah 65:2–3a, NIV)

But God, I have important things to do! (More important than God?) I’m tired! (Too tired for God?) I need a break. (A break from God?) I might fail you, God. (You might.) I’m scared. (God is with you.) You might ask me to do something I can’t do. (If God asks you, he will give you the ability.) You might ask me to do something I don’t want to do. (Maybe. But is that bad?)

Are we like those obstinate people of Isaiah’s day, who pursue their own imaginations? We imagine that we can solve our problems on our own. We imagine we can make our own lives happy. We imagine we can make other people happy – except the people we don’t like and we can make their lives miserable! And yet all day long God holds his loving hands out to us, ready to embrace us if we just turn to him.

We have an interesting double standard. When we ask God, we want what we want when we want it. When God ask us, we make all kinds of excuses or simply ignore him. Perhaps we would have a better connection if simply talked to God about what we want, about what he wants, and about our feelings and fears that go along with both of those.

I arrived at the person’s house. They had an older phone they had left off the hook. What will God see when he arrives at our house?