“You are called to walk by faith, not by sight”
Thankfully, God is not a slot-machine, and answers to prayer don’t always come in the form requested, which teaches me that listening is such a key part of the relationship God wants to build with us in prayer.
Just recently, I was in a very wild and remote place in Scotland climbing mountains. This ‘sport’ has meant a great deal to me for most of my life, but every new route brings uncertainty and challenge. I was approaching a summit, unseen on the edge of a cliff over a kilometre away on a trackless plateau which has a reputation for being very confusing in cloud. I am comfortable with finding my way about by compass bearing, map interpretation and distance pacing, but still much prefer to see where I am heading. As I approached this plateau up a steep ridge, I could see that cloud was threatening, so I asked God to keep the summit clear.
As soon as I said that, an ‘inner voice’ seemed to respond “You are called to walk by faith, not by sight”. I got to the top of the ridge, and the plateau was engulfed in cloud, giving me a visibility of thirty to forty metres. Because of the certainty I had of God’s response in the ‘inner voice’, I knew all would be well, so took a compass bearing, and about fifteen minutes later, walking carefully, I landed bang on the summit cairn. My ‘walk by faith’ answer had done more for my relationship with my caring heavenly Father than a cloud-free answer would have done.