Does He Hear Your Prayer?

Hear my prayer, O Lord! Psalm 39:12 (NLT)

Question for you. Do you think your view of God impacts your prayer life? I’m not sure this is something we think about enough. And I’m not sure we realize how significant the impact is. The Bible tells us that God is a personal God. He is loving (1 John 4:8), all powerful (Luke 1:37), all knowing (Matthew 6:8) and sovereign (Isaiah 55:8-9). It also tells us he is active with his creation in a personal way. If you don’t believe these things about God, how would it impact your prayer life? If you don’t think he is loving, then would you trust him enough to bare your soul to him? If he is not all powerful, would it be useful to pray for our wildest, boldest dreams? What about all knowing? If God was not all knowing, he may or may not know about the prayer you just sent his way. And then there is the question of sovereignty. Do you trust that even if something doesn’t turn out as you prayed it would, that God knows best so it’s fine? Do you have the confidence to hold on and move on because there is a bigger plan?

There are so many of God’s attributes that are not listed here but the point is the same.  If you don’t truly know who he is, if you have not experienced him on many levels, your prayer life will be, well, limp. When we pray, we should pray with the great expectation that the Sovereign, Holy, Loving, Omnipotent (all powerful), Omniscient (all knowing) God is going to show up to answer. If we are praying with any expectation other than that, then it’s no wonder people say they have a hard time with prayer. What they really have is a hard time with God.

–Elaine Kapetanakis