The Lord is righteous in all His ways and gracious in all His acts. The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry for help and saves them. The Lord guards all those who love Him, but He destroys all the wicked. (Psalm 145:17-20 — Holman Christian Standard Bible)
The pairing of righteous and gracious in the beginning of this passage reveals two extremes of God’s character. He is righteous and holy, hates sin and the devil, and yet is gracious in all His actions. He hates the sin of the sinner with every fiber of His being but is ready to forgive that very same sinner and welcome him into His family. This is not a contradiction, it is merely a sign of how impressive God is. No one word can describe the entire spectrum of a person’s character, neither can one word ever completely describe God. When people view Him only as a judge that demands perfection and who will at some point in the future condemn people to hell, they do Him a great disservice because He is also a friend that is ready to forgive any sin, and who believes in us far, far more than we believe in ourselves.
When people complain that God doesn’t answer prayer, the true problem does not lie with God but with them. Like this short passage plainly states three different times, God hears peoples’ prayers and saves them, but asks us to approach Him in a specific way. When we make an effort to be people of integrity — honest and good — God straight up says that He will run to our side and answer our prayers. He doesn’t promise to answer every cry immediately, or after only one prayer, at times He wants us to persist in what we want before he will answer us, but all through the Bible this message is repeated over and over again, God answers people when they cry out to Him. He rescues those who are making an attempt at pleasing Him.
Let this passage be a source of strength and encouragement to you today. God is both righteous and gracious. He is not our enemy. His arms are constantly open to us. He is never too busy to hear and respond to our cry. He is more eager for our prayers to be answered than we are, but we have to do it in the proper way. God does not demand perfection, but He does insist on honesty and a genuine effort to do what is right. — So let’s get busy and get some answered prayers.
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