Job 22:27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
There are many promises in Scripture that the Lord will hear our prayers. This promise, spoken by Eliphaz to Job has a contingency: if you return to the Almighty. Eliphaz had mistakenly accused Job of great wickedness and infinite iniquity. This was the reason for his great suffering. So repent. But Job did repent and believe, for he feared (believed) God and eschewed evil.
Even though the accusation may be false, the call to repent is still valid for all of us. It is still fitting, right, and salutary for us to repent daily, for we are still sinners every day, and we always need to return. Life distracts and blinds us to our sin and our need. Drifting away from conscious awareness of God, from humility and dependence, and from the need for Jesus happens all too easily. So return! As the Lord says to Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.” That “one thing” is Me. Listen to me! Return!
Repentance is embedded in the Lord’s Prayer. It centers us. We return. Then we have the promise: “He shall hear you.” The Lord is always ready to hear our prayers, but when we prepare our minds and open our hearts through repentance and faith in the gospel we are ready to believe He hears.