Does God Hear My Prayer?

Does God Hear My Prayer?

When you are praying, do you actually envision and think about the fact that God is actually hearing YOU the moment you think or speak a prayer?  Are you speaking words into the air or are you thinking them in your mind more as an exercise in prayer rather than truly grasping the fact that God is hearing you at that very moment?

If we are being honest, I'm not sure how many of us truly take hold of the absolute Truth that whenever we call out to the Lord, by whatever means, He hears us in real time.  Some of us may struggle that He ever hears us at all...

I believe that if we set our minds to envision our Heavenly Father with His ear to our hearts, hearing in the present moment our prayer, any anxiety we might be feeling which is prompting us to pray, will  dissipate because we are entering into true fellowship with the Lord, a back and forth exchange, talking to Him, believing that He is listening and waiting to hear back from Him.

For those of you who may struggle with grasping hold of this or even believing it, I hope that the following points will reassure your mind that indeed God is listening ALWAYS and He hears you.

What should I Say or Do for God to Hear My Prayer?

In the Word of God, there are many verses regarding prayer, but there is one portion of Scripture where Jesus indeed tells us how to pray...

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.   Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

    on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6:5-15

Jesus has given us not only a formal prayer here, but guidance for prayer.

In a nutshell, we are to come before the Lord with a contrite heart asking for forgiveness and forgiving those who have offended us, praising God, praying for His Kingdom, praying for His will to be done in our lives, seeking His spiritual food,  and for deliverance from falling into temptation.

The prayer is very God-centered, not me centered.

But it is also important to note what Jesus says prior to the formal prayer.  He exhorts us NOT to "heap up empty phrases... for they think they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."

There it is, the Lord hears the prayer of your heart before you utter a word!  It can simply be, "Jesus help me!"  You have essentially incorporated the entire Lord's prayer in those three words.  You are recognizing Jesus as Lord; you are seeking first His Kingdom; you are submitting to His will; you are recognizing you need Him and can't do it on your own; and you are seeking deliverance from whatever you need help from.

God hears the humble prayers of the saints.

How Do I Know if God is Listening to My Prayer?

Do you ever think to yourself, can God hear my prayer? It's okay if this has crossed your mind.  It's a hard thing to grasp when you are praying to an unseen God, in the physical sense that is.  I mean look at the Israelites who had God right there in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, yet often they still didn't think He was listening.

The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer.
Psalm 6:9

Or are you battling debilitating fear where you are so caught up in the noise of the battle that rages inside of you, that you forget that God hears you through the turmoil in your mind?

In my alarm I had said,

“I am cut off from Your sight.”

But You heard the sound of my pleading

when I cried to You for help. 

Psalm 31:22

I called on Your name, Yahweh,

from the depths of the Pit.

You hear my plea:

Do not ignore my cry for relief.

You come near when I call on You;

You say: “Do not be afraid.”

Lamentations 3:55-56

Are you searching for wisdom in a matter that seems impossible?

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according 

to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, 

we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 

1 John 5:14-15

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;

    the Lord hears when I call to him.

Psalm 4:3

Have you been praying years for a circumstance to change?

But truly God has listened; 

he has attended to the voice of my prayer. 

Psalm 66:19

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 

and his ears are open to their prayer. 

1 Peter 3:12a

We can know that God is listening to our prayers because He has promised to.

What Happens When God Doesn't Answer My Prayer?

Although it may seem like God hasn't answered your prayer.  Indeed, God answers ALL prayers.

I want to encourage you that if you have not received an answer to a longstanding prayer or if you are waiting for an answer to prayer, that does NOT mean that God did not hear your prayer.

Before they call I will answer;

    while they are still speaking I will hear.

Isaiah 65:24

There it is right there!  God has promised that He WILL answer our prayers and WILL hear our prayers.

God never goes against His promises.

The book of Hebrews gives an account oftentimes entitled the "Hall of Faith".

All of these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance...

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received 

what had been promised,  since God had planned something 

better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Hebrews 13a; 39-40

Although these verses state that these faithful saints did not receive what was promised, the promises were fulfilled, just not in their lifetime.

In the same way, when we pray, although we may not receive the answer to prayer in our lifetime, that does not mean God did not hear that prayer.  As we saw earlier, He WILL answer.

Years ago, I heard a testimony given by a grandson about his grandmother.  He told the story that he was a wayward child and got into a lot of trouble.  His grandmother faithfully prayed for Him to come to faith.  The grandson did ultimately come to faith, but not until ten years after the grandmother had died.  She did not receive her answer on earth, but in Glory, she knows it was indeed answered, in God's perfect timing.

It is also important to take off the blinders we may have put on expecting the exact answer we hoped for.  When in fact, the Lord has answered, just not in the way we had thought.  It is always important to look at the bigger picture.  Trust in who God says He is and who you are to Him.

When you pray, do not become anxious if the years are ticking off with no answer, remember God has heard your prayer.

You might think, if He's heard my prayer, do I still need to repeatedly pray it.  Yes!!  When you continually seek the Lord in a matter of prayer, you are showing your sincerity in that prayer.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  

I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, 

when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Luke 18:1-8

  Trust in His loving timing when a prayer has gone unanswered.

How Does God Hear All of Our Prayers At Once?

It's hard sometimes to wrap our finite minds around an infinite God - His omnipresence {always present} and His omniscience {all knowing}.  But it is in these very attributes that we can know that God hears EVERYONE's prayers, in the moment.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

    you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

    and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Psalm 139:1-4

The Christian faith is built on one essential Truth, it is about a relationship with Jesus, not about a religion.

As Jesus' redeemed child, you have His undivided attention.  It's as if you and He are the only ones who exist in the universe.

Many verses in the Bible regarding prayer use the word "call" - a word that conjures up a quick response from the one being called to...

The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, 

To all who call upon Him in truth.

Psalm 145:18

This side of Heaven we won't be able to grasp fully God's infinite and amazing abilities, but what we must grasp is that God indeed does hear our prayers and our cries to Him.

Recall those times you have received an immediate answer to prayer to remind yourself that God hears YOU in the very moment you cry out to Him. 

May our prayer lives be enriched as we meditate upon the fact that God is actively listening to us the moment we pray.

And say to yourself, God does hear my prayer.

For similar posts, click on the following:

3 Reasons Why God Might Be Waiting to Answer Your Prayer

Four Powerful Attitudes in Prayer that Yield Results

God's Only Child. Me!

God is Still Good When Things are Bad

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