224. God will Listen
Jeremiah 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
God promises to hear our prayers. The Lord has promised to hear our prayers so often that we cannot but receive this promise and believe it. Another promise is included in this verse: you will call upon me, and you will go and pray unto me. God promises us that we will do this. It is the Lord, the Spirit, who motivates us to pray, who leads us to pray, who guides us in our prayers, and even prays for us when we don’t always know how to articulate the prayer in the right words. The Spirit of God urges and prompts us to pray (instead of worrying or trying to do it by ourselves), He prays for us and through us, and He helps us in our prayers.
A part of the motivation to pray is the promise that He will hear. God lays the prayers upon the heart, we think His thoughts after Him, and so we pray because He promises to listen to our prayers and answer them. We pray that His will should be done. He moves us to pray His will, we pray it, and then He hears and answers our prayers. We do not need to be concerned if we pray for the wrong things, if we mess up the words, or even if we pray to spend on our own passions. The Spirit takes our less than perfect prayers and selfish prayers and works out His will according to His good and gracious will and perfect wisdom.
We also believe that the Lord answers more prayers than we think He does at first glance. Sometimes the answers come in ways that seem unrelated to what we wanted, but God grants answers according to what He wants, for our good. And He knows best. Nevertheless, we pray because He promises to listen to us. He knows what we need before we ask Him, but He still wants us to ask. God loves us and He loves to hear us talk to Him. Faith knows He hears. Faith waits for His answers.