Devotional Thought – The Answer of Anticipation

14 Nov Devotional Thought – The Answer of Anticipation

“And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”  Matthew 8:7

There are some answers to prayer which come only as the promise that the prayer will at last be answered. Here we read where the Centurion prayed that his servant would be instantly healed and Jesus’ immediate response is, “I will come…” Haven’t we experienced much the same thing in our walk with Jesus? We ask of the Lord something that is not immediately granted, yet there is more of an assurance than mere silence. We feel in our heart that there is an answer- an unshakable, undeniable confidance that one day it will be well. The dawn does not come immediately, but its first rays shine forth promising that the rising sun will come.

Christian, don’t despise these moments of anticipation. There may not be an immediate answer to your prayer, but there is the promise that your prayer will at last be answered. This is no little thing, but rather an assurance that great men have lived and died on. Didn’t Abraham leave his country, as well as the safety and luxury of his father’s house, with nothing more than the strength of a promise? Wasn’t it that promise than enabled him to climb his Mount Moriahs and on their summits meet the great sacrifices of life? Wasn’t he made strong by the power of an anticipated answer, by the voice which said to him each morning, “I will come.”

If you set out on your journey with Jesus with the anticipation of an answer to your prayer, then you too will climb your Moriahs with unfaltering feet. You too will reach their summit strengthened for your sacrifice with the promise that it will come. Tomorrow’s glory will give a glimpse of itself through today’s tears and the rays of tomorrow’s sun will be seen through tonight’s clouds. All of your soul’s shadows will vanish when you hear your Lord say, “I will come.”