“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” — Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)

What better invitation to prayer could we have than this verse? “Call to Me, and I will answer you…” Not, call to Me and I will listen; not call to Me and I will consider your situation. God said, Call to Me.

That means that we are to pray, to cry out, to Him. We are not to murmur amongst ourselves, nor should we be bound by the advice of well-wishers, we are to petition God with the faith that He is going to answer our prayers. Not only answer, but show us “great and mighty things which you do not know.”

In essence God is telling us that He has wisdom far above any that our human capabilities can attain apart from Him. Could not much of the strife and confusion and turmoil of life be avoided if we would simply pray with the expectation that God is going to answer? Yet we often see prayer as a last resort, something we do when all else has failed, not the “plan A” that He intends it to be. The Hebrew word bat’sar, here rendered as mighty, could also be translated, “inaccessible.” Our verse then becomes, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and inaccessible things, which you do not and can not know apart from Me.”

How will we know that God has answered as promised? We must have faith as we pray that He will answer. Paul speaks of this in Philippians 4:6-7 as the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” that gives us assurance. Is not this peace the “great and mighty” that God spoke of through Jeremiah?

Pray, believe, expect, receive! That is also the promise of John 14:12-14, for those who believe, and keep His commands, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…”

We must pray as though our prayer has already been answered; praying with faith that our prayer is in accordance with His will (in His name) and that we are living as Jesus taught (again, in His name). When this is our prayer, God hears His Son praying; He will move heaven and earth to grant the petition offered in Jesus’ name.

The Rev. Bobby Thornhill is a retired pastor.