Scripture: Luke 18:7

Song: My Defender by Jeremy Camp

There are cries that do not come from emotion alone. They come from pressure that has stayed too long, from doors that have refused to open, burdens that have refused to lift, and battles that have refused to end. A person can smile before men and still carry an unspoken burden before God. Some matters follow you into the morning, sit with you through the day, and return with you into the night. They press on the mind, draining joy, and after a while, the pain is no longer in finding the words but in bearing what is unresolved.

 “Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him?” This points to people who do not say a quick prayer and move on, but rather people who have been driven to God by necessity. They cry because something is wrong. They cry because injustice has lingered. They cry because help has not yet broken through. They cry because if God does not step in, the matter will continue to devour peace, strength, and hope.

The Scripture reveals that persistent prayer is not foolishness. Returning to God again and again is not waste. There are issues in life that cannot be handled by casual devotion. They must be laboured over in prayer. They must be carried before God until the heart is no longer bending under them alone. Day and night prayer is what happens when a matter has touched the nerve of destiny, peace, family, health, calling, or survival. It is what happens when a person knows that if God does not intervene, human arrangements will not be enough.

What must be seen clearly is this: God does not speak of such cries lightly. He does not reduce them to religious routine. He does not call His people foolish for returning again and again over the same matter. He speaks of them as His own. The cry is not rising from strangers. It is rising from those who belong to Him. The pressure may be on your side, but heaven does not receive your voice as if it has no obligation toward you.

God is not only saying that He is aware; awareness is too small a word here. He is saying He cannot remain indifferent to the continuous cry of His own. The issue is not whether the cry has reached Him it has. The issue is not whether He understands the depth of it; yes, He does.

The verse does not only reveal the seriousness of the cry, it also reveals the moral nature of God. He contrasts Himself with the unjust judge. Men may delay because they do not care; they may ignore because your pain is not their burden; men may turn away because they gain nothing from helping you, but God is not unjust; He is not evasive; He is not managing your prayers until you get tired and stop bringing them. He is righteous, and righteousness means He responds rightly to what concerns His own.

So when your heart is asking whether your crying has become too much, and when pain tempts you to conclude that your prayers are rising into emptiness, this verse answers you. God is not asking this question because the answer is uncertain. He is asking it to rebuke unbelief. Shall He not hear? Shall He not act? Shall He not arise over what has made His people cry day and night.

So, do not train yourself to carry what should be brought to the throne. Bring it as one who knows that God is not a spectator over the troubles of His saints, because the cry of the saints is not a lost sound.

Prayer
Lord, I refuse to let delay poison my faith. Over every matter that has made me cry before You day and night, arise in Your righteousness. Let injustice break. Let resistance give way and let my life become proof that the cries of Your saints do not die unanswered before You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.