God hears our prayers

Did you know that every moment of every day you have God’s attention!? Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend that with all the billions of people on Earth that God knows every little detail of my life, every second of every day. I mean, after all not only does He have to keep up with every single person alive…but also every soul that has passed from this life to the next. And then there are all the angels as well as holding the galaxy together…yet I am important enough to Him that his eyes are always on me. I am continually under His notice and nothing escapes Him. I am always in the shadow of His wing and under His care.

Not only is he always watching over me, but his ear is ever open to my prayers…no matter how big or how small. In the Facing the Giants movie, one of the players asks Coach Grant if he thinks God cares about Football. Coach Grant replies, “I think he cares about your faith. He cares about where your heart is. If you can live your faith out on the football field, then yes God cares about football, because He cares about you.” As this team gets their motivation right, and the team begins to play to honor God both on the field and off, we see God answer the prayers of team and they become the champions. God cares about what is important to you too.

Prayer is not a means of getting whatever we want, the moment we want it. God is not a genie in a bottle, nor is he Santa. There is no magic words or ritual involved. However, we can have confidence that as a Christian, God does hear our prayers. Sometimes he answers just the way we want. Sometimes he answers, but within His own timing. Sometimes the answer is no, but we can know that His “no” means it’s for our best. In Numbers 22, we read the story about a man named Balaam. He was on his way to pronounce a curse on Israel for a price. But God halts his journey in a very unusual way. While riding his donkey, the donkey suddenly stops. This happens three times and when Balaam would have struck the donkey, the donkey talked! The donkey asks him, “Have I not always been faithful to you?” Then Balaam’s eyes are opened and he sees what the donkey saw: an angel standing in the path. The angel says to Balaam, “I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have speared it.” Wow! The donkey saved Balaam’s life. We all hate detours. They can be both frustrating and confusing. But when God places a detour in our lives, we can trust Him for the different path He has for us. He loves us enough to get in our way to stop us from making reckless decisions and choices. But even in the detours, God hears our prayers. Just trust that if the answer isn’t coming or doesn’t come the way you want it to, that God has something even better in mind for you.

Not only does he hear our prayers, but because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, we have the liberty to go to God in prayer at any time. If I wanted to see the President of the United States, there would be many people I would have to get through…even if the President was willing to allow me a few minutes of his time. We do not have to go through anyone to get to God…and he always has time for us. There is no calling him up to be placed on hold until He gets to us. There’s no need to leave a message and hope our prayer doesn’t get lost amongst the billions of other prayers being sent at the same time. No, we have the freedom to go straight to God and pour our deepest cares and biggest longings. Psalm 5:3 says, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my request before you and wait expectantly.” David had a habit of praying every morning. We can pray any time. In fact, the apostle Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17). But David also prayed expectantly. He expected God to answer Him. You can expect God to answer your prayers also…even if the answer is different than what you wanted.