David promises us that the Lord is near to all those who call on him. (Ps. 145:18)
Yet frequently, David complains that God is slow to answer him.
How long, O Lord?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me? Psalm 13:1-2
Sometimes, David felt that God brought him right to the point of giving up.
For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
I fade away like an evening shadow…Psalm 109:22-23a
I have wrestled with these same thoughts. I am glad to know that the “man after God’s own heart” had the same experience, and he did not resent it. It all worked out for good for David. Everything always works out for good for those who pray and do not give up.
God never afflicts us from his heart. That is exactly what the Hebrew text of Lamentations 3:33 says. God has answered a lot of our prayers in the last years, but He has withheld the ultimate answers on many as well. That withholding has caused pain. It is not in God’s heart to cause us pain. It is in His heart to bring us into a realm of goodness that can only be entered through pain. Only in that realm of goodness do we find the deepest friendship with Jesus. (Phil. 3:10