Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist) and Mansfield, Texas. I hate to wait. Lights that turn red just as I get to them are the bane of my existence. People who gum up tollway entry booths while they search their pockets for coins should be made to walk home. I get frustrated when my MacBook takes 30 seconds to boot up. Microwave dinners cook too slowly. Now I've found a legal system which agrees with my chronological sensibilities.
This morning's Wall Street Journal tells us about the "rocket docket" courts in Florida which conduct foreclosure hearings in as little as 20 seconds. Given the state's requirement that judges approve all foreclosures, and the soaring number of such financial crises, something had to be done. So judges are hearing nearly 1,000 cases a day and bringing in retired judges to help. The faster they can expedite things, the sooner their state's housing markets can stabilize. Or so the theory goes.
Imagine for a moment that God adopted this approach to answering our prayers. More than two billion people on our planet profess to be Christians. If each one were permitted ten seconds to voice a single request to God, I calculate that it would take 634.2 years for God to hear us all. By then you might have a second request, so the process starts over.
The good news is that God has all of eternity to hear your next prayer. We know that he transcends the spatial world he has made; as Paul assured the Athenian philosophers, "the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands" (Acts 17:24). It is harder for us to comprehend the fact that God also transcends the time he created. Jesus was "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Revelation 13:8), part of God's plan for humans before history began. He created time and will abolish it one day. He lives in eternity and is not bound by our calendars and clocks.
As a result, God has no time limits for responding to the prayers we offer to him. Revelation 5 tells us that the 24 elders in heaven "were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (v. 8). Think of it—God keeps and cherishes for eternity every prayer you offer to him. Including your next one.
This is why God can hear every prayer spoken by every Christian in every moment of time in every language on earth. We are told to "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) to the God who hears us continually. He is ready to suspend time for you. Have you made time yet for him?
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