Jesus is the answer. It’s the obvious statement, right? To you and me, maybe. But what about to the heart that cannot cry to the ears of the Almighty, to those who choose not to believe in the Name of Jesus Christ.
What is the answer, what is the hope, for that person?
Amid his mire, Job discusses this exact question with his friends. “For what is the hope of the godless … Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?” – Job 27:8
Jesus is still the obvious answer to the hope of the godless. But if they are blinded from the Answer, then the question remains, what is the hope?
The hope of the godless, my sweet friend, is you.
Before you judge my theology, listen to this simple truth. God created all mankind. Jesus died and rose again for each person God created. How perfectly, God knows the heart of man, both of his children and of the godless.
In contrast, the Holy Spirit only resides in the heart of those who believe. Therefore, God only hears the cry of his child; he does not hear the cry of the godless*. As a child of God, we have an incredible gift in prayer.
Not only do we get to take our prayers to the very Creator of the vast universe, but we get to hear God’s prayers pressed on our hearts.
We get to pray! And God is wanting to be a part of it.
He wants to answer our prayers. He wants to comfort our hearts. And, yes, he wants to know all that is deep within our souls. But how sweetly God also desires to pray through you. To say to you, “I know the heart of a man, and I want you to pray for them.”
I venture to say, some of us remember when our identity was godless and hopeless. It is in this memory of our ‘Before and After’ that we pray for others. We pray for their hearts to be softened, for their eyes to open, and for the joy of salvation to overcome their souls.
We get to be the prayer warrior who fights for the salvation of another.
Seed by seed, prayer by prayer, little by little the prayers of the family of God unite for the unheard cries of the godless. What is the hope of the godless? The hope of the godless is found in the power of the prayer of the righteous.
Elihu (a friend of Job) answered, “If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him…then man prays to God, and God accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.” -Job 33:23-28
*John 9:31