Letters to God

Western Wall Prayers and Letters

As the High Holy Days approached, Danny Goldstein, the Post Director in Israel, met with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the Western Wall with a special delivery of letters addressed to God and placed between the stones of the Wall. Every year Israel receives letters in the hundreds addressed to God: “Our Dear Father in Heaven and the Western Wall.” Most of these letters have no return address, and the Israeli Post’s Lost and Found Department sends them to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Some letters were from within Israel, but some came from Nigeria, France, China, Spain, Russia, Netherlands America, the United Kingdom, and other countries around the world (Gelber, Max 2016).

Can God answer these prayers? Yes, the Bible says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Sending our prayers to God doesn’t have to involve some hidden or special location, if you don’t have the money to mail a prayer to Israel. God says, “’I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, “Seek Me in vain”; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right (Isaiah 45:19). We also don’t have to worry if our prayers to God will ever end up in the Lost and Found Department of Heaven. We can know “The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer” (Psalm 6:9).

Whether we mail a prayer to Israel in faith, or simply offer up a silent prayer to the Lord in the car, God can hear us, because it isn’t about the location or method of the prayer but the heart. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Just trust in the Lord and God will hear your prayer. God is more than willing to do what is best for you.

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