She (Gladys) had been a missionary in China for six or seven years before she ever thought of wanting a husband. When a British couple came to work near her, she began to watch the wonderful thing they had in marriage, and to desire it for herself. Being a woman of prayer she prayed–a straight forward request that God would call a man from England, send him straight out to China, and have him propose. She leaned toward me on the sofa on which we were sitting, her black eyes snapping, her bony little forefinger jabbing at my face. “Elisabeth,” she said, “I believe God answers prayer! He called him.” Then in a whisper of keen intensity, “but he never came.”


Today as I drove to work I was thinking about this passage that a friend had posted on a blog. So often we are so quick to assume that God will not, or cannot or doesn't care to answer our prayers, but as I meditated on this a profound but very simple concept came to mind. God is faithful. He has promised to listen to us and to answer us when we talk to him. Gladys recognized something in the above passage and that is that people fail, so isn't it 100 percent more likely that a person would fail than God? How quick we are to pass God off as a God who doesn't answer prayer. How quickly we forget that he is faithful to himself and to us.

I'm falling asleep so I can't expound further, but maybe you understand what I mean.