“Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer me, and in Your righteousness” (Ps 143:1).
H. P. Barker tells a story about a poor woman who was being pressed by a tradesman to pay an account which she knew she had already settled. In that case he demanded that she produce a receipt, but she was unable to find it. She went through piles of papers and letters, but to no avail. Finally the tradesman came to her again and demanded immediate payment. She turned to the Lord in prayer, earnestly asking Him to bring the receipt to light. Then in a moment or two, a butterfly flew into the room through an open window, and her little boy, eager to catch the creature, ran after it. It flew down behind a trunk. There, on the floor, lay the missing receipt!
Notice in our verse that it is the Lord’s faithfulness, not ours, that is the secret to answered prayer. Prayer, like a butterfly, metamorphoses by faith from human need to divine provision.