Nuggets Of Knowledge Series, Article 4
Blessed morning everyone and welcome to yet another installment of the Nuggets of Knowledge series, here at metanoiameans.com!
Have you ever wondered if God hears you when you call out to Him? I know I have, whether it be in prayer or just when I call out to Him during my day.
There have been times where I wondered if He heard me or if He was even listening, for that matter.
I know that in the early part of my walk with our loving Heavenly Father, this concern used to really bother me. I also know it is a very common concern among new believers. With that being said, I felt led by His Holy Spirit to write on this topic today and share with you all that I have learned.
The short form of this answer is YES, He is ALWAYS THERE and He DOES hear you.
For those of you who want a more detailed answer though, here it goes: God is our loving Heavenly Father, our Almighty Creator. He has been, Is now, and always will be The Perfect Parent to us.
Our parents, the ones He gave us to, the ones who raise us here on earth, are humans and therefore imperfect. Just like us, they make mistakes and can’t always be found if and when something goes wrong.
God, however, Is:
Omnipresent (present everywhere at all times),
Omniscient (all knowing), and
Omnipotent (all powerful)
Bible verses about God’s OMNIPOTENCE:
Bible verses about God’s OMNIPRESENCE:
Bible verses about God’s OMNISCIENCE:
I knew this at the start of my walk with Him, but I didn’t understand how these things proved that He listens to my prayers, and not only my prayers, but the prayers of all of His children.
All throughout The Bible, He tells us to pray. He tells us to trust Him with all of our concerns, worries, fears, and needs. One of my favorite verses addresses the fact that He not only listens to our prayers but also encourages us to pray. John 14:13-14, for example, states the following: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in My Name, I will do it.”
As I said before, our loving God Is omniscient; that means He knows all.
ALL includes everything about each and every one of us: our hopes, our dreams, our fears, and the secrets that we keep–everything there is to know about us; even stuff we don’t yet know ourselves, He knows and HE CARES.
The key here is that He wants us to ask. He wants us to ask because it proves to us that we need Him. It takes humility to ask anyone for help, whether it be a person or God Himself.
That’s exactly what God wants us to do: He wants us to humble ourselves before Him and to admit to ourselves that we cannot do anything without Him.
Humility is a big thing to God. It therefore should be a big thing to us, His children.
He does not want us, as His children, to be arrogant, puffed up, or anything of the sort. Those characteristics are not becoming of a child of God. If Jesus Christ, The Son of God Himself could kneel down and wash the feet of His Own disciples, why would we think that we have the right to be anything other than humble?
In my “travels,” I have also heard the question “does God actually want us to pray?”
I can tell you right now that the answer to that question is an emphatic and resounding yes. Not only does he want us to pray, He also teaches us how to, in scriptures such as Matthew 6:9-13 and Matthew 18:19-20.
There are many, many verses about prayer in God’s Word; they all either show us how to, give us reasons to, or tell us how not to pray. This shows us that a healthy and strong prayer life is greatly encouraged by our loving God, and is quite important to–if not vital in–the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ.
The one thing that seems to elude people (myself included, once upon a time) is that though we may ask for something in prayer, it is not guaranteed that we will receive it.
God has a plan for each and every moment of each and every life that has been, is now, and will be. If our prayers do not align with His will, then they will not be fulfilled.
This is something that many people struggle with: the Sovereignty of God.
I find that if I think of God in His Role as my Heavenly Father, His sovereignty is easier to both understand and accept.
Not only does God want what is best for us but He also KNOWS what is best for us.
An example of what this means is as follows:
As a child, I LOVED cookies and ice cream (still do). My earthly parents would allow me to have them every once in a while, but never before a meal, never just before bed, and never too much of either treat–no matter how much I asked or even sometimes demanded.
This was because it would have been very unhealthy and would have led to a stomach ache and trouble sleeping if they did. Due to the fact that they were my parents, when they would tell me no I didn’t have a choice but to listen.
Now that I am an adult myself, I understand what they were doing by limiting my intake of and access to these tasty treats. They were keeping me safe and in doing so, showing me that they loved me.
God does the same with our prayers. We can ask for ANYTHING we want, but that does not mean we are going to get it.
The answer of “no” from God sometimes seems like silence to us who are praying to Him, but that does not mean He didn’t hear us or isn’t listening. He knows what is best for us (His will) and will answer our prayers accordingly. As our loving Creator, our doting Heavenly Father, the absolute perfect parent, we cannot and should not expect any less from Him.
How Does God Answer Prayers?
I cannot and will not claim to understand God so completely as to know exactly why He gives us the answers He does, but here is a theory I learned from others as I sought the answer to this question myself.
A. Yes– this answer is the result of one of 2 things. Either he feels you are ready for what you are asking for and the time is appropriate to give it to you or he knows you are not ready and he is giving it to you to show you that this is the case. The reason for this can vary from person to person and situation to situation.
B. No– what you are asking for is not meant for you to have.
C. Not yet– what you are asking for is meant for you but you have some growing to do and or the time is not right for you to have what you are asking for.
Prayer is not meant to be seen as just a way to get things from God, He is neither a genie nor a short-order cook. He is our all-knowing and all-powerful Heavenly Father, Who delights in spending time with us. To my knowledge, prayer is the main way He does that.
He speaks to us in an inaudible manner, through His Holy Spirit, Who dwells in everyone who is truly sold out to Him. He comforts us, He teaches us, He guides us, He does many things when we pray to Him.
Most important of all though, in my opinion, is He LISTENS to us.
We can come to Him even when we don’t have any requests at the moment. In fact, I dare say He WANTS us to. He wants us to come to Him throughout the day every day. He wants to hear how our day is going. Yes, He already knows and sees it all but He wants us to tell Him about it.
All of this is why I think prayer is an effective way to build a relationship with our Almighty triune God, our Father in heaven, our wonderful Creator.
It is important to remember that our LORD will communicate with us through prayers and when He does, He expects us to listen to what he tells us and take it seriously.
Just remember, you are speaking to the Creator of the universe. If He shows you respect and listens to what you say in your prayers (He always does and always will), you must show Him the same respect when He answers you.
It is very important that you don’t begin to think you can grow in faith by just talking To Him and not listening to Him.
If you choose to not listen To His Reply, it may as well be a chatbot you are spewing information and thoughts to. It becomes a one-sided conversation where you’re just telling God stuff and treating Him as if He is just an invisible sounding board. That is most certainly not what you want.
On the other hand, there are some who would rather talk To Him than get into His Word. When He talks to us, when He answers our prayers, He will refer us back to His Word.
In fact, the number one way to verify that It IS God Talking to you, as opposed to it being the enemy, or just “you muttering to yourself” IS that What He Says Is CONSISTENT WITH His Word.
So, if you neglect reading His word you run a substantial risk of not realizing or understanding when He has answered one of your prayers or how He has chosen to answer it, or even both.
With all of that being said, the question really isn’t either “LORD, are you there” or “can you hear me,” but rather “are we hearing what He says?” And are we accepting His answers?
In closing, I encourage you all who have read this far to read each and every verse that I have discussed in today’s nuggets of knowledge installment for yourselves.
May the one true and living God bless you all.
Thank you for reading, see you again soon!
METANOiA Means 