Tuesday, July 27, 2010

God Always Responds To Our Prayers

God always responds to our prayers. He never ignores us. He is the perfect parent. 1 John 3:1 says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” Because of your faith and salvation in Jesus, you are a child of God.

The Lord is delighted with you as any loving parent is with his or her child. He longs to give you good things. Matthew 7:11 says that earthly fathers love to give good things to their children; think how much more your perfect, Heavenly Father longs to give good things to His children when they ask.

Sometimes God cannot answer our prayers and give us everything we ask for; because it is not always best for us. Sometimes we have to wait longer than we would like for the answer to come. God is so much wiser and knows things we do not. We may not understand why we can’t have something that seems so good and right. We must trust God is in control of our lives and is working according to His perfect plan.

There should be no doubt that when we pray, God hears us. The question is, do we hear God when we pray? Do we stop and listen for Him to answer? What would happen if we gave God a chance to talk back? What might happen if, at the end of our prayer, we waited to hear what He had to say in response? After all, don’t we pray so that God will respond with an answer or word of encouragement?

Isaiah 55:8-11 “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth, and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

God can be very creative when He answers our prayers. Imagine what King Hezekiah must have thought when God answered his prayer by sending the angel of the Lord into his enemy’s camp, slaying thousands! We must be totally surrendered to God, allowing Him to answer our prayers however He wishes. When we lay down our requests before God, we must also lay down our own expectations of how God should answer them.

God love us and wants the very best for us. He promised to hear us when we pray. No request is too small or personal. God even pays attention to requests made by small children for what we would consider insignificant things.

True Store:
“Four year old Katherine begged her mother for her favorite boxed macaroni and cheese dinner. Katherine’s mom told her they didn’t have any in the cupboard. “Can’t we go to the store and get some?” Katherine asked her mother. Katherine’s family was very poor at the time, so her mom told her they couldn’t by that particular brand until it was on sale.

Even at four years old, Katherine know her family always prayed about everything. “Why don’t we pray for a sale?” Katherine asked.

The next day, Katherine’s mom opened the paper looking for the food ads. On the front page of the circulars was a sale on Katherine’s favorite brand of macaroni and cheese, one of the cheapest prices the family had ever seen.”

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