​"In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He heard me.”   ~Psalm 120:1

​​___________​​​​

“Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; and to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, to You all flesh will come.”   ~Psalm 65:1-2

God always hears the prayers of His children, those who have a relationship with Him. And yes, He always answers our prayers, and will give us what we ask for or something much, much better! Prayer, true heartfelt prayer is our greatest gift to God. Our prayers are the only work that God is interested in, because prayer is a work of faith, and our works of faith are the fruit of the Spirit, they are pleasing in His sight!

“And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”   ~1 John 3:22

How can we pray if we don’t believe? I mean really, who’s going to pray to a God they don’t believe in, right? God knows that it takes faith to pray, and He also knows that it’s hard for us who have never seen Him to believe. And He is a rewarder of faith, He will always answer the prayers of those who love Him. 

“Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”   ~John 20:29

Faith in this invisible God is difficult until we learn to see Him with our hearts. Once we stop believing that we must be able to physically see and touch something for it to exist, we can then learn to enable our spiritual eyes. Once we experience God in our heart and learn to trust Him we will see Him in everything and hear Him in a multitude of ways.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”   ~Hebrews 11:6

Prayer is at the core of faith. Truly, if we believe God exists we must also believe that He hears us. It's all about prayer—it’s the same thing as our need to breathe to have physical life, we must pray to stay spiritually connected and keep our spiritual life alive as well.

“We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”   ~1 John 4:6

Case in point: Last week I lost my glasses at the grocery store. I immediately got upset and headed back to every place I had walked in the store. I spend half an hour searching before it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t even thought to ask God for any intervention. I stopped right there, dead in my tracks, and said a simple prayer asking God to help me find them. And bam... bananas suddenly came to my mind! I hustled back to the produce department and started looking on the banana rack, but no luck. So, I prayed again, and again, the same thing, bananas! Now, I start moving the bunches of bananas from one spot to another, and what do my wondering eyes should appear, but, my glasses!

This is just one little example of many, many times that no sooner did I pray, than whatever I prayed about suddenly materialized! Yes, God absolutely wants to help us. He wants to hear from us on every issue, both bad and good, big and small. And you can bet that I praised His goodness and thanked Him all the way home.

Try it. Try reaching out to Jesus in prayer, and see what happens. I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed. You may not get an immediate answer, and you may not get the answer that you were hoping for, but I promise you will get what God knows is the very best thing for you.

The following is a breakdown of Psalm 28:6 & 7. All we have to do is just ask in absolute faith, believe that He is our source of courage and protection, be happy in the knowledge that we have an advocate who listens, and then thank Him with our whole heart!

ASK:
Blessed be the Lord, Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!

BELIEVE:
The Lord is my strength and my shield;

REJOICE:
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,

PRAISE:
And with my song I will praise Him.

This Psalm then ends with the ultimate results of this biblical formula!

“The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.”   ~Psalm 29:11

There is such great peace in the word of God. If we believe that He hears us, we can go to Him with confidence knowing that He will handle the situation in the very best way, however, He will do so in His timing, not ours. Patience, grasshopper, patience.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.”   ~Psalm 55:17

God’s ears are open and very in-tune to our prayers. He most definitely hears His faithful followers when we cry out in anguish. As well as the fact that He is against those who choose to do evil. The Bible is crystal clear about both of these facts.

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles."   ~Psalm 34:15-17

If we think God exists to serve us only when we are in need, we are sadly mistaken. If our heart is set on evil—evil we shall have. If we don’t choose to have a relationship with Jesus and allow His Holy Spirit to reside in our hearts, if we would rather be living a life of evil and sin instead of a life of faith and prayer, obedience and love, He will not hear our prayers! And the following verse spells this out in no uncertain terms!

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”   ~Psalm 66:18

God not only hears our prayers but knows what we are going to ask for even before we pray. He knows what we’re going to think before we think it. He is the God of the future. He knows everything that will happen and has made provisions for those who love Him. Even though the outcome may not always appear that way, He is always seeing a much bigger picture than we see and He is always right!

Since God knows everything, we must trust that whatever is happening is somehow woven into an integral plan for the tapestry of our lives.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”   ~Isaiah 55:9

​Why should I pray…?

“Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”   ~Philippines  4:6 NLT

Jesus prayed to the Father continually. If Jesus needed to pray, what does that say about us? But, you might ask, aren't some things just too small to bother God with, after all, He’s busy feeding the hungry and healing the sick, right?

God wants us to bring everything to Him, even the smallest of thoughts. He wants us to share every aspect of our lives with Him, no matter how trivial it might seem. So long as we go to Him with all of our heart, He will hear!

“Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”   ~Jeremiah 29:12-13

Yes, we should take all of our problems to God, He longs to help us, but we should also thank Him for all He does for us as well. How would you feel if your friends only sought you out when they needed something from you? How would you feel if they never thanked you or praised your efforts?

Well, Jesus also wants to hear from us when things are going good. He might also like to hear a thank you now and then or a praise for all He has done for us!

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”   ~Hebrews 13:15