Confident Hope

Psalm 86:5-7 (MSG)

“You’re well-known as good and forgiving, bighearted to all who ask for help. Pay attention, God, to my prayer; bend down and listen to my cry for help. Every time I’m in trouble I call on you, confident that you’ll answer.”

How can we be confident that God will answer us when we pray? How do we know that He will help us when we need it? We know because of who God is. David tells us in this psalm that he is confident that God will answer because God is good and forgiving and bighearted to all who ask for help. The beautiful thing about God is that a lot of the words we use to describe God are not actions that God performs–they aren’t things that God does. Rather, they are attributes of God–they are who He is.

God doesn’t love. He is love. It’s who He is. And the added beauty to that is that part of who God is is eternal and unchanging. God doesn’t change. If He was kind and bighearted and forgiving once, He is kind and bighearted and forgiving now today, and He will always be kind and bighearted and forgiving. It’s that unchanging character attribute of God that allows us to have full and complete confidence in Him. We know He will never turn away from those who seek Him.

Father, I thank you that you are a God that doesn’t change. I know that when I need help, I can ask you for help, and you will answer me. When I need love, I know that I can find it in you. When I need forgiveness, I know it’s in your hands, waiting for me to receive it. Thank you, God. Thank you for who you are. In Jesus’ name, Amen.