Once the Lord has given us great faith, He has been known to test it with long delays.

He has allowed His servants’ voices to echo in their ears, as if their prayers were rebounding from a contemptuous sky.

Believers have knocked at the heavenly gate, but it has remained immovable, as though its hinges had rusted.

And like Jeremiah, they have cried, “You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through” (Lamentations 3:44).

True saints of God have endured lengthy times of patient waiting with no reply, not because their prayers were prayed without intensity, nor because God did not accept their pleas.

They were required to wait because it pleased Him who is sovereign and who gives according to “his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).

And if it pleases Him to cause our patience to be exercised, should He not do as He desires with His own?

No prayer is ever lost, or any prayer ever breathed in vain.

There is no such thing as prayer unanswered or unnoticed by God, and some things we see as refusals or denials are simply delays.

HORA TIUS BONAR: Christ sometimes delays His help so He may test our faith and energize our prayers.

Our boat may be tossed by the waves while He continues to sleep, but He will awake before it sinks.

He sleeps but He never oversleeps, for He is never too late. ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Be still, sad soul! lift up no passionate cry, But spread the desert of your being bare To the full searching of the All-seeing eye; Wait! and through dark misgiving, deep despair, God will come down in pity, and fill the dry Dead place with light, and life, and springlike air. JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP

Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, your sins have hid his face from you.

My beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: . . . I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart.

I have seen his ways, and will heal him.

Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way?

He arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.

I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

Speak; for thy servant heareth.—When Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.—I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! and the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, for they have even taken of the accursed thing . . . and they have put it even among their own stuff.

Behold, the Lord ’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.