Your cry, PLEASE JESUS HAVE MERCY, has entered into the ears of the Lord who hears not only the lips but the heart, and He who knows the unspoken prayer knows it altogether. Think not that because you have not uttered it in words it is therefore hidden from Him, for the feeble prayer which we ourselves despised and which we thought would have died at the gate of mercy has been nursed and nurtured and fostered and accepted, and it has come back a full grown blessing bearing mercy in both its hands.
You speak of malicious elements who have mocked and made sport, comparing your hope to Moses opening the Red Sea, and seeking praise by belittling your supplication. This is no new trial. Faith has always had her foes, and they scoff at faith itself and count it folly, and they say of the believer, he pretends to trust in God to win esteem. Sometimes the mockery comes from one of your own household, sometimes from those who preach somewhat of truth but with a spirit of scorn. Be not moved by it. Brethren, if we are in the fire tonight and we are trusting in God, our faith does not mean that we expect to come forth at this very hour. We may not come out tonight nor tomorrow nor next month, it may be not for years, but this is the victory which overcomes the world, even your faith. They that scoff at God's poor people here shall see them exalted, and what can they then say but be compelled to bear witness that their faith was justified.
You say, I must believe my prayer has already been answered. Let me counsel you with tenderness. We shall send Gehazi yet seven times if he perceives no sign of mercy at the first, and we shall continue in importunate prayer, still believing that Jehovah cannot lie and will be as good as His word. Yet we must not dictate to God the fashion or the hour of His answer. Get the promise and then offer the prayer, and the prayer will be answered as sure as God is God. But get your own fancy into your head and you will only have to get it out again, for it will be of no service to you. Prayer is to be answered after God's fashion. Jacob prayed and his prayer was answered, but it was not answered in the way he expected it would be. God met him as though He were his enemy and he went limping when the sun rose over Peniel, yet for all that he did get his prayer answered.
Therefore do not leave the Mercy Seat till you do find liberty, and when you feel you have not liberty in prayer, pray in order to get liberty. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Add force to your petitions. Is it mockery, is it scorn or sarcasm, does God invite intending to repulse, does He set open the door of mercy meaning to shut it in the sinner's face. Impossible. God is willing to receive and bless, for God invites most freely.
And because your prayer is now unspoken, let it be spoken plainly before God alone. He requires truth in the inward parts. Bring your whole heart, with all its desires, and lay it under the light of His Word, submitting it to His will. Sometimes failure in prayer may be caused by sin, and we must grow more earnest both in trust and in cry, giving up all dependence anywhere but upon God. Ask yourself whether your petition is according to His promise and according to His holy way. The Gospel shows the tender mercy of our God, that He thought of sinful man at all, and that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, by repentance and faith in His blood, and that He has ordained marriage to be the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and that the union of body and of household belongs within that covenant alone. Whatever your unspoken burden may be, ask the Lord not only to grant your desire but to conform your desire to Christ, that you may will what He wills, and that your prayer may honor Him.
He will answer at the right time. Five minutes afterwards you might have been dead, but the answer has often come punctually at the very tick of the clock of wisdom, not before nor after. Brethren must not take delays in prayer for denial. God's long dated bills will be punctually honored. We must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in the God of Truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers.
So continue to pray, though in silence before men. Tell Jesus only, in His name only, for only Jesus can do this. Confess sin, trust His tender mercy, plead His promise, and wait upon Him with humble and importunate faith. The Lord will always honor your faith because your faith honors Him, and prayer, which is the prelude of mercy, is often itself the means by which the mercy comes, for it is a comforting exercise to pour out the soul before Him.
