My husband and I were newlyweds when Matt was offered his job. The position required a security clearance; we were told the paperwork would take a few months to go through. Once he was cleared to work, we would leave our college town in northern New York and move to South Carolina right away. We needed to be ready to leave as soon as the clearance went through. So, we submitted our paperwork and interviewed with a government employee. And then we waited.
For months….
This process that we were told would take a few months to complete took 6 months. And then 9 months. And then 10 months. We were ready to move; working temporary jobs we could leave right away. I was substitute teaching, and Matt was milking cows at a local dairy farm. We were barely making ends meet, and our nerves were fried. Would tomorrow be the day we’d be called to leave? How long was this process going to take? Nobody in Matt’s HR department could give us any answers. The company outsourced the vetting process, so they didn’t know anything. We were exasperated, frustrated, and tired of waiting.
I was reading my Bible one morning over breakfast. I remember I was working my way through the Gospel accounts. There was nothing special about that morning in scripture. It was just like any other morning. But God, in His providence had me read Luke 11, where Jesus taught his disciples about prayer. And I read the following passage:
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.” Luke 11:5-8
The Spirit really pressed that last verse onto my heart. I felt the desperation of the friend in this passage so viscerally! I needed help. I was completely outside my ability to do anything for myself, and I needed God to come through. ‘Maybe I need to have a little shameless audacity in my prayers,’ I thought! So I went to my husband, and said, “I think God wants us to pray all night about your job. If the friend in this passage’s midnight interruption moved his neighbor to action, maybe we should do the same thing.”
So that’s what we did. Matt and I took shifts, and we prayed all through the night. Again, I don’t remember anything special about my midnight prayers. I didn’t hear the voice of God. Nothing looked different or promising in the middle of the night. I was just being obedient to what I felt God had asked me to do.
But the next day, Matt was cleared to work.
Are you waiting for something today? Are you at your wits end, powerless to change your situation? Do you need God to come through?
I’m not suggesting you pray straight through the night, necessarily. We don’t need to do something special or extreme to get God’s attention; He’s always listening. But if you came to me looking for advice, I’d be quick to say, position yourself to hear from God. Spend time in scripture, and in prayer, and listen for His still, small voice. And if you feel God calling you to something, if He’s asking you to take a step of faith, be obedient, no matter what the result is. God is present in the waiting. He’s attentive and close by when we’re desperate. And He loves to receive your prayer, any time of the day or night. He’s infinitely more eager to help than we are willing to ask.
