Think back on a time in your life when you were struggling. Maybe it was due to health problems, some financial struggle, or even a relational conflict. It could have been a number of things that caused the pain in your life. But you cried out to the Lord in prayer; he heard your voice and answered your prayers. The answer may not have been as you expected or wanted, but it was unmistakable that God heard and answered. You knew it was his response to your prayer. It felt so sweet and filled your heart with gratitude. We find that same experience in Psalm 116:1-2.
“I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore, I will call on him as long as I live.”
(Psalm 116:1-2)
Out of his own encounter with the Lord, the psalmist gives us two results of answered prayer that greatly motivated him to walk with the Lord. It is an awesome blessing that the Lord hears our prayers and answers them according to his perfect will. We praise him for his amazing grace! But we can ask ourselves, “What does this answered prayer do in my heart and my life? How does it change me?” We can all say that it brings us joy and strengthens our faith. We are very thankful. While all this is true and wonderful, the psalmist here adds two other benefits to the list of blessings of answered prayer.
The first is that the Lord answering his prayer causes him to love the Lord more. Surely the psalmist loved the Lord before this situation occurred. Undoubtedly he was in a love relationship with the Lord to cry out to him in prayer when he was struggling. The Lord was the object of his faith and love. But in the dire situation and the dramatic experience of God coming to his rescue, his heart was drawn to a higher and deeper love for the one who loves him and demonstrated that love in answering his prayer. The thought that the Lord God Almighty, the creator of the universe, would pay attention to his small life and give ear to his humble cry for mercy was overwhelming. This real-life experience deepened his love for the Lord, and so it can ours too. God has answered your prayers many times. That display of love motivates deeper love on our part.
The second blessing of answered prayer the psalmist mentions is that it strengthens one’s prayer life and deepens one’s prayer resolve. Our resolve to pray can be weakened over time. Our desire and commitment to pray can grow cold, but the Lord’s answer can turn all that around. It can spark a renewed desire to pray. The psalmist, with deep emotion, cries out, “Therefore, I will call on him as long as I live.” Since the Lord is faithful to hear and answer, we can be faithful to pray more and better. We can see the benefits of persistent and concerted effort in prayer. God will hear and answer. We can continually look back on those times when life seemed to envelop us with its pain, and we cried to the Lord, and he heard our voice. We can see the Lord bending over as a father to a much-loved child to give an ear to every need expressed in the cry of his child. We will often go back to our attentive Father. We know he loves us. What we have to say matters to him so that we can say with the psalmist, “He has heard my voice.”
Sometimes as we pray, there seems to be no answer. It feels as though our words have no weight. Why does the Lord not answer? We have all been in that situation too. When we find ourselves there, we can remember the exciting times of answered prayer. We can relive the deeper love for the Lord that grew in the rich soil of his attentive ear. And then we can remember the heart-felt resolve we experienced to pray more and better, to truly be a person of prayer no matter what. That memory can be the little spark that ignites a great fire in our hearts to continue in our prayers until the answer comes. We know that the Lord loves us, that he is all-wise, and that he is in control of the world and our lives for his grand and eternal purposes. We will one day soon again feel the joy and gratitude of our heavenly Father’s presence in answered prayer.