Sep 2, 2014
As soon as you began to pray,
an answer was given. Daniel 9:23
When Daniel poured out his heart in prayer for Jerusalem, he received initial confirmation that God had heard his prayer. The angel Gabriel came to him and told him that as soon as he had begun to pray, an answer was given.1
For those of us who participated Monday September 1 in 9 1 1: An Urgent Call to Pray for Jerusalem, we concluded with an expectancy that God would confirm that He had also heard our heart’s cry on behalf of the city and the people that He loves.
“I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. . . . Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life” (Gen. 9:12-16, NIV).
Even as God spoke, the sunlight may have broken through the boiling clouds and pounding rain, producing a breathtakingly beautiful arch of colors stretching from one peak to another. As God explained to Noah the meaning of the rainbow, surely peace and gratitude flooded Noah’s heart as he knew, based on God’s Word alone, that he was safe and secure.
God gave Noah the sign of a rainbow to symbolize His covenant. When the thunder clouds rolled and the rain began to fall and Noah was consciously aware of sin in his life and the lives of others, he was to look up and see the rainbow. The purpose was not for him to remember God’s covenant but to remember that God remembered His commitment to humanity. And God remembers that He is still committed to us.
