Is Anyone Listening?

Have you ever felt like your prayers floated up, hit the ceiling, and came right back down? When my son was a toddler, we kept a monitor in his room around the clock (we weren't overprotective first-time parents at all). I remember listening to him on the other side of the monitor. He'd say in an adorable toddler voice: "Do you hear me?"

Even though he couldn't see us, we were watching and listening. In a similar way, God watches over us and hears us. Our access to God isn't based on making deals with Him (God, if you'll give me a 7Brew squishie before they run out, I promise I'll go to church Sunday!). Our access isn't based on our performance, although the Bible says our prayers can be hindered by disobeying God.

The bottom line is this: God, our loving Father, always hears our prayers because of His unconditional, amazing love for us and through the infinite and passionate sacrifice of God's Son, Jesus Christ, on our behalf.

In Psalm 17, David was in trouble. The first verses tell us of David's obedience to God, and the next few show us David's reliance on God. Because God is good, holy, and faithful, we can pray with David, "Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways!"

When we are following Jesus, seeking God's will, and completely surrendered and sold out to His plan, we'll see some wonderful answers to prayer.

Dr. Helen Roseveare, a medical missionary to the Congo in Africa, told the following story of an amazing answer to prayer: “A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded. ‘Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won’t feel so lonely.’ That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, ‘If God sent that, I’m sure He also sent a doll!’ And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child’s sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies’ group to include both of those specific articles.”