Have you experienced a time when you felt that God has abandoned you? When you feel that the whole world is conspiring against you? I am sure that many of us have been in that situation, and our prayers never seem to reach God. We have been told that God knows when to answer our prayers because sometimes what we pray for might not be suitable for us at that moment.

The Israelites in the Old Testament prayed for deliverance from their enemies but God, through the Prophet Isaiah, gives a different kind of deliverance. At a favourable time, God will answer us, on the day of salvation, God will help us. This prophecy points towards the heavenly reality of our salvation and not our earthly one. What we are waiting for is to return to the heavenly kingdom to be with God in eternal bliss. This kind of waiting is one of hope, not a hopeless waiting. That is what we should be praying for - more hope.

This is God's promise to us, that He will never forget or abandon us. We are the ones who often stray away from God. As the Responsorial Psalm reminds us - the Lord is kind and full of compassion. Thus, this God will never turn away from us. Let us pray that our Lenten journey be a continual reminder of our journey back to Him.