“17) The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. 18) The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 19) Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:17-19)
God delights to hear prayer, and He will deliver when His own call upon Him. But there are conditions for those prayers to be heard
They must be the prayer of the righteous and they must be a prayer from a humble heart.
God is near them that have a broken heart. God saves those that have a contrite Spirit. According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1913 edition), contrite means, “broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God; humbly and thoroughly penitent.” It can also mean “thoroughly bruised or broken.”
If our heart is right with God, and we are humble before Him and have confessed any sin in our heart, God will hear our prayer for deliverance. Even if we are in a trouble because of our own sin, God will still hear that prayer. He demonstrated that many times with king David. He may allow us to suffer the consequences of our sin for a period of time, but He will hear our prayer for deliverance and will answer if our prayer comes to him from a broken and contrite heart and a heart that is clean from sin. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
God’s time table for deliverance is not always the same as ours, but God will hear, and He will deliver.