God Answers Before We Call: Divine Attentiveness to Prayer

Isaiah 63:24 unveils a stunning promise: "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." According to F. Delitzsch, D.D., the Church approaching the new Jerusalem will experience such perfect harmony with Jehovah's will that He hears and fulfills even the half-uttered prayer, the slightest movement of the heart toward Him.

Man's greatest need—eternal life—cannot be supplied by himself, by the world, its inhabitants, its wealth, or its pleasures. Only God provides light, pardon, guidance, comfort, and heaven. Yet Jehovah opens the way of approach through His Word, teaches the way through His servants, directs in the way through His Spirit, and explicitly promises to bless all who come.

The remarkable evidence: God perceives the unfolding of the praying heart. Swifter than lightning flash, the answer comes. David discovered this (Psalm 32:5); Daniel knew it (Daniel 10:12); Matthew records Christ's teaching of it (Matthew 6:8). Amid the clash of nations, the busy tumult of struggling humanity, the hoarse cries for sensual pleasure, and the blasphemies of the lewd, Jehovah listens to His children and hears the faintest whispered want. The Israelites at Mizpeh (1 Samuel 7), David's triumph over enemies (Psalm 21:8–9), Daniel's seventy weeks (Daniel 9:21), and Cornelius (Acts 10:8) all testify: God's willingness to hear transcends human limitation.