The Lord HearsBlessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
(Psalm 28:6-7) Thursday, Fifth Week of Easter Almighty God, merciful Father, Your thoughts are not our thoughts, Your ways are not our ways. In Your wisdom You have permitted this disastrous coronavirus to inflict the world with its contagion. We implore You, let not the hearts of your people despair nor our faith to fail us, but sustain and comfort us. Direct all efforts to attend to the sick, console the bereaved, and protect the helpless, especially those who are the front lines. Bring hope and healing that we may find relief and restoration; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen Dear friends, Sometimes in times of distress we might be tempted to think that God is not hearing our prayers. Maybe he is too busy to hear my prayer. Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe my small problems are not enough to catch his attention. The truth is much different. God hears our prayers. And he cares. All the time. Think of this: I’m bound by time. In other words, what happened two seconds ago can never be undone. All the mistakes I have made in the past can’t be rewound and edited (though it makes for a good movie plot). I also can’t jump ahead 3 weeks or even three seconds to discover what will happen next. I am bound by the present moment; I am confined to this point of time that occurs between past and future. All my decisions, thoughts, actions, misdeeds, and successes happen in this moment. God is not bound by time. He is eternal. He can see the past and the future and the present moment all at once. To him, every moment is current. Because he is not bound by time, he is able to spend every one of his moments listening to my prayers and attending to my needs. Then he can do the same with my neighbor, and then he can do that with every single person on the planet, all 7.5 billion of them. He never runs out of time. He is never too busy. I know. It makes your brain hurt thinking about it! Here’s the good news about this. God hears our every prayer. And he answers them. Immediately. Sometimes we have to wait for his answer to show up in our moment of time, but it will happen. All in good time. We also need to keep in mind that God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours. Only God knows the outcome of our requests. He is wise enough not to answer “Yes” to prayers that are unwise, selfish, or harmful. In addition, in his eternal wisdom, he may let us experience things that we think are bad in the moment, but in the long run are best for us and are greatest blessing to others. Bottom line? Let us bless the eternal Lord, “for he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.” May we take refuge in him and sing songs of joy in thanksgiving to him, regardless of what is happening in our present moment. In the hands of the Living Lord,
Pastor Langdon Reinke P.S. Hope you and your family are healthy and safe. We are in this together. We have help available if there are needs. Please let us know. | 
