在2021年2月18日，當毅力號火星探測器在火星著陸時，在地球的監測人員經歷了「恐怖七分鐘」。這個探測器在結束它約4億7千萬公里的航行時，必須自行完成一個複雜的著陸程序。可是訊號從火星傳送到地球需要數分鐘之久，因此毅力號在著陸過程中，美國太空總署（NASA）無法收到任何訊號，這對於在此任務中投入巨大心力和資源的團隊來說，失聯實在是一件讓人恐懼的事。

有時候，當我們覺得聽不到上帝的聲音，尤其是禱告未蒙回應時，可能也會感到恐懼不安。我們從聖經看到，有些人禱告後很快就得到回應（參閱但以理書9章20-23節），有些人卻要等很久（參閱撒母耳記上1章10-20節有關哈拿的經歷）。延遲回應最令人心酸的例子，或許是馬利亞和馬大請求耶穌來醫治她們的兄弟拉撒路（約翰福音11章3節），她們肯定十分恐懼。可是耶穌遲遲未到，結果拉撒路死了（6-7、14-15節），但四天後，耶穌回應了，祂讓拉撒路死而復生（43-44節）。

等待禱告得著回應也許很困難，但上帝會安慰和幫助我們，我們只需要「坦然無懼地來到施恩的寶座前，⋯⋯得憐恤，蒙恩惠，作隨時的幫助」（希伯來書4章16節）。

When the Mars rover Perseverance landed on that red planet on February 18, 2021, those monitoring its arrival endured “seven minutes of terror.” As the spacecraft ended its 292-million-mile journey, it went through a complex landing procedure it had to do on its own. Signals from Mars to Earth take several minutes, so NASA couldn’t hear from Perseverance during the landing. Not being in contact was frightening for the team who had put so much effort and resources into the mission.

Sometimes we may experience our own times of fear when we feel we’re not hearing from God—we pray but we don’t get answers. In Scripture, we find people getting answers to prayer quickly (see Daniel 9:20–23) and those not getting answers for a long time (see Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1:10–20). Perhaps the most poignant example of a delayed answer—one that surely struck terror in the hearts of Mary and Martha—was when they asked Jesus to help their sick brother Lazarus (John 11:3). Jesus delayed, and their brother died (vv. 6–7, 14–15). Yet four days later, Christ answered by resurrecting Lazarus (vv. 43–44).  

Waiting for answers to our prayers can be difficult. But God can comfort and help as we “approach [His] throne of grace with confidence, . . . [that] we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).